


He seems to hate Me

by RedCatEye



Category: Professional Wrestling, WWE
Genre: AJ is a happy drunk, Also AJ meets AJ, Also Y2Rae was a thing, Also stereotypical Highschool party!, Bonding, Brie's finally introduced!, Bullying, But Chris is an asshole, Chris has a panic attack, Chris is a bit of a typical jock, Creepy parks?, Dared relationships, Dean is a helpful tourguide, Dean is a nice guy, Dean is a spraypaint artist, Dean is also a helpful guy, Depression, Dorm Rooms, Feels, Highschool AU, Highschool Drama, Highschool cliques, Highschool stereotypes, Hints in Chapter 11's end notes, Homophobic Slurs, I LIIIIIIVVVVVVEEEEE!, I'm Sorry, Jon Moxley Easter egg!, Lita is also a cool teacher, M/M, Medical Inaccuracies, More characters to come, Mr. Regal is an awesome teacher, Nerd/Jock dynamic, Nikki is a bitch, No Dialogue, Polaroid cameras, Roman likes giving people ultimatums, Roman makes another appearance, Self-Harm, So is Dana, The P1 logo, The mandatory football chapter I skipped is gonna come up, Who Knows?, With A Twist, Yay! Character Development, and also, and the smut is coming I swear, cause no HS AU is complete without a football game, cause why not, cause why not?, drama in chapter 16, hahaha NOPE BINCHES!!!, hangovers, heads up, i s2g highschool relationship drama is full of miscommunication, is Owens psychic?, it was bound to happen, miscommunications, polaroids, ps I promise AJ will be in the next chapter, slight homophobia, sort of, that high school stereotypes tag won't last much longer, underaged drinking, yo trying out new stuff!, you guys thought i was gone???, you'll see why - Freeform
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2016-06-11
Updated: 2018-07-12
Packaged: 2018-07-14 10:09:21
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 18
Words: 40,454
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/7166900
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/RedCatEye/pseuds/RedCatEye
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Highschool can either be the best or most miserable time of your life.</p><p>EDIT: Fic is discontinued as of Feb. 12, 2017<br/>EDIT: Fic is officially continued as of July 9, 2018</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Meet the Cliques

Being a transfer student to one of the country's top schools was nerve-wracking. AJ wasn't really sure what to expect when he stepped through the doors of WWE Academy. Well, at least he already established his role in the school by tripping in the aisle of the school bus, cementing him as the school nerd.

As he sat in the back, he observed the faces of the other passengers. A lot of them seemed to be seated according to social status and popularity: A group of sorority-looking girls were loudly gossiping in the middle, making fun of a really pale and gothic-looking girl who sat in the seat behind them. The jocks were picking on the less popular kids in the front seats, putting gum in the hair and other nasty things, and in the back area was a group that seemed to be a mix of punk, average and the bad boys.

The guy who sat in front of AJ was a blonde guy, probably a little younger than him, sporting a black hoodie, pants and converse shoes that have seen better days, and he was kneeling on his seat to peer over to talk to the guys behind him: A big, buff fellow with tanned skin and a bit of a tribal tattoo peeking out from his rolled up sleeves. Next to that guy was a guy with half-blonde hair, headphones blaring some heavy metal song loud enough for AJ to hear.

 

It took less than fifteen minutes for the bus to reach the school, the students filing out of the vehicle and going their separate ways along with their cliques. It made AJ feel a little lonely. He didn't know anyone in this school, he thought to himself as he got off the bus. Well, the first thing he could do was go find his locker. He took out the piece of paper in his jacket to check what his locker number was.

_Locker 5F-TechB-0602; Combination: 0602161_

"Hey, buddy," A gruff voice from behind jolted him back to reality. AJ turned, the blonde guy from the bus seemed to have split from his friends. "Ya might wanna do that somewhere you can't block someone's way." The guy had an 'I smoke a few cigarettes outside of school' kinda voice; Rough like gravel, was the best AJ could describe it.

AJ moved aside and muttered a quick "Sorry" as the guy passed. AJ caught up to him. "Uh, hey. Can you help me find my locker? I don't know the locker placement systems here."

 

Hoodie Guy turned to him, and AJ showed him the slip of paper with the combination covered.

"'5F' stands for 'Fifth floor," He politely answered. "'TechB' is the Technology Building over there-" He pointed to the building to their right. "Jus' keep looking through the lockers there, there aren't that many, until you see '0602'. The numbers are plated on the locker."

AJ thanked him as he placed the paper back in his pocket, the guy lingered for a while. "Our lockers are on the same floor," The other guy pointed out. "Might as well show ya around, right?"

The Georgian took the offer, and they both walked into school grounds.

 

"Name's Dean, by the way," The guy –Dean– introduced himself as they walked. "Dean Ambrose. And I'm gonna assume that you're the new kid everyone's been buzzing about."

"Huh?" Yes, because that response was not stupid at all. Way to go, AJ.

"The principal's been talking about rules and tips about being nice to other people. She rarely does that, so we all just thought that we'd be getting a new student. Way to blow it earlier at the bus, though. Not how I imagined a student who's been to different countries would make a first impression, but hey I've seen worse."

"How do you know I've been to other countries?"

"Records. Principal likes to punish me by making me sort out files and shit. I got ahold of yours last week. Pretty impressive record, by the way."

 

Okay, that was just creepy. "Thanks," AJ answered politely. "Name's AJ–"

"Allen Jone Styles. Yes, I know. I told you: I read your records. But I promise, other than your name and your accomplishments, I don't know anything else."

"So you don't know that I'm from TN–"

A hand clasped over his mouth, another cradling his head. Dean's hands were deathly cold. "Don't let anyone else hear you say that," He warned before stepping back and letting AJ breathe. "WWE Academy and TNA High aren't the best of friends since forever. And yeah, I know you're from there but trust me: Don't admit that to anyone else. Last time a newbie from there bragged about it... Well let's just say he has claustrophobia now."

AJ stored that cryptic information for later. They decided to save the Tech building for last, Dean taking a detour to the school football field where everyone else seemed to be. The number of cliques seemed to have doubled and became more specific. Dean was kind enough to showcase the groups and explain how to keep out of their bad side.

 

He pointed to the large group of girls in the bleachers first.

"Those are the Sorority girls. But they're not a sorority, we jus' call 'em that 'cause they act like fucking college bitches. They're your typical Valleygirls with daddy issues, always carrying around a compact mirror or lipstick or whatever. They're pretty easy to get out of: Either be a 'loser'–" Dean air-quoted the last word. "Or rich. If you're an average student or a nerd, well you're outta luck. They'll make fun of jus' about anybody."

AJ prayed that he'd be classified as a loser by these girls. But Dean wasn't done. He pointed to the girl in the center of the group, and AJ immediately started to doubt the strictness of their dress code. There's no way an almost non-existent pair of booty shorts was appropriate for a highschool setting.

"That girl over there with the ombré hair?" Dean asked as if he was asking if AJ could see. "That's Nikki Bella, the sort of...Regina George of WWE Academy. She's also the head cheerleader and the guy next to her is the captain of the football team, John Cena. He's a pretty cool guy to hang out with but his girl is just a bitch."

"Oh, and by the way, Nikki has a twin sister but I don't know where she is. Her name's Brie, and you could tell the difference between them by looking at their body build. Brie's slimmer and her chest is a little flatter. And she's the cool twin. She hangs out with the people her sister wouldn't want to be seen with. So if you want someone to talk to, try to befriend her. But warning, though. Don't try to make her an enemy. She's still Nikki's sister."

 

AJ nodded, and they decided to take a seat down on the grass. It was only 6 AM and classes didn't start until 9 so they had a lot of time to spare. They settled their bags down on their laps, another tip from Dean to avoid his bag getting snatched up and thrown in the dumpster for fun, as he was introduced the rest of the cliques.

"The goth kids over there are led by Paige Knight," Dean pointed to the pale girl seated amongst a group of kids settled behind one of the bleachers nearby. AJ recognized the goth leader from the bus earlier as the one getting picked on by Nikki's crew, "They mostly just keep to themselves and some of 'em are pretty cool but you can't talk to them unless you think, act, and dress like them. If not, then it's best to just leave 'em alone."

"The nerds hang out in the library so you won't see 'em here. If you're a gamer or whatever, you'd wanna talk to them but like I said, Nikki's group might target you as their next makeup model. The guy representing that group is Byron Saxton, short bald black guy who wears button-ups and slacks. Good kid, and I feel bad for him. Jocks like to use him as a punching bag."

Dean was about to say something when a rowdy group of guys (with a select few of girls) came barreling into the field, each donning their white and red varsity jackets in one way or another.

 

"Speak of the devil," Dean commented with a smile. "Those are the jocks. They're basically just the bullies of the school. If you're not one of them, then you'd better pray they'll ignore you for the rest of the year. You already know the captain of that group,"

Sure enough, said captain came over with Nikki in tow to greet his team with fist bumps and secret handshakes. 

"Not all of 'em are bad, though. Like I said, Cena's a cool guy, very laid-back. That tall guy with the man bun over there–" He pointed to the big tanned guy from the bus earlier, and AJ glanced at Dean just in time to see him blush a little. "That's Roman. And even though he's like the most popular guy in school and he's also related to a lot of alumni here in WWEA, he's the coolest guy you'll meet."

Roman seemed to have excused himself from his faction, ignoring the shocked and annoyed looks on the faces of the people behind him as he made his way over to where AJ and Dean were settled. 

AJ had to admit; Roman was pretty attractive. Strong physique, tall, the start of a goatee on his chin and stormy grey eyes completed with a model-esque profile. Damn, it wouldn't be hard to see why Dean was blushing earlier.

 

Speaking of Dean, he pushed himself up onto his feet and dusted the dirt and grass from his bottom. AJ did the same and slung his bag back over his shoulder.

"Hey, Uce," His voice cracked a little, and both Roman and AJ found it funny. "Your friends are giving ya sour looks over there."

Roman gave him a look that seemed to say ' _Are you kidding me'_. And when Roman did reply, his voice was so deep that AJ thought that Roman probably manhandled puberty. There was no way this guy was younger than 18.

"What you talking about? My best friend's right here" Roman nodded in AJ's direction. "I see you're making friends like I told you."

Roman extended a hand to greet the new kid, a friendly smile on his face. And man, his grip was firm, like he was silently telling AJ who was the boss. "Name's Roman Reigns. But since you're apparently Dean's friend, you can just call me Roman."

AJ nodded. "AJ Styles. Nice to meet you."

 

Roman tilted his head a little, eyes narrowing like he was trying to read AJ's mind, as the handshake ended.

"AJ Styles. Where have I heard that before?" 

And with that, AJ felt a weight in his stomach. He really didn't want Roman to be a bully, especially since he was part of the jocks.

But his fears went away when Roman laughed.

"I'm messing with you, man," He reassured, clapping AJ on the shoulder. "I've actually never met you before. But I'm gonna guess you're the new kid, in which case; Welcome to WWEA, man."

"Thanks."

Dean was right: Roman was a pretty cool guy. They talked for a few more minutes, AJ accepting the invitation of seeing them later at lunch, when an older guy came up to them. Like Dean, he had blonde hair and blue eyes too but he definitely didn't look as young as Dean or even Roman. So he had to be an upperclassman.

The initials 'Y2J' were embroidered on the left chest area of his jacket. AJ was confused since Roman had only the letters 'RR' on his jacket. _'Must be an upperclassman privilege.'_

"Reigns, c'mon," God, that voice just sent shivers down AJ's spine. "I think you've graced these idiots enough with your presence. Let's go." 

For a moment, AJ was sure the guy –Y2J– wouldn't notice him. After all, the brunette was still relatively new, and AJ was sure that he didn't see Y2J on the bus so hopefully, the older man didn't see AJ's epic fail.

 

Roman kept his cool and flashed Dean and AJ a rueful smile. "I'll see you guys at lunch, yeah?" Without waiting for their reply, Roman was quickly pried away from the conversation by Y2J.

 _Wow, rude_.

AJ heard Dean urge him to move on with the forgotten tour and AJ was about to comply when... Wait, what? He must have been seeing things.

But apparently, he wasn't the only one who saw it, and he wasn't sure whether to feel relieved because he wasn't going crazy, or embarrassed because stuff like that didn't happen, shouldn't happen.

Dean confirmed AJ's sighting by elbowing AJ in the ribs and saying,

 

"Dude, did Jericho just wink at you?"

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I hope that was a good start. I have always wanted to try my hand at Highschool AUs and I thought WWE was a perfect fandom to start in.
> 
> The inspiration for this is a mish-mash of various Highschool movies and AUs so I hope it's not /too/ stereotypical.
> 
> So yeah, AJ and Dean are friends and AJ meets a very jerky jock.
> 
> Kudos and comments are always welcome, as well as prompts and ideas for this fic. 
> 
> For the latter two, send them via ask on my tumblr: crimson-of-the-earth.tumblr.com


	2. 'Think About It'

AJ couldn't get his mind to wrap around the fact that Y2J, –Or Jericho, as Dean kept calling him– a  _jock_ , winked at him. A jock who also happened to be an upperclassman, winked at the new kid.

It seemed crazy but Dean kept talking to him about it so it must have been real. 

 

The rest of the tour was awesome. Dean showed him the building where they had this olympic-sized pool, the soccer and tennis field, he even showed him the gym where there was an ongoing fencing  _and_ wrestling match, mats for the respective sports were set up on either side of the gym so one bout could continue without disrupting the other.

Man, this place had it all.

It was almost 9 AM so Dean promised to continue the tour some other day as he escorted AJ to the Tech building where their lockers were.

AJ's initial worry was having to climb five flights of stairs just to get to his locker but it turned out he didn't need to worry about that 

 

"Where are you going?" Dean called him back. "The elevators are this way."

Because of course WWE Academy would have elevators. And  _air-conditioned_ ones, at that. But of course, boring old elevator music was playing in the background as he and Dean awkwardly waited for their designated floor. 

Well, there's no such thing as a perfect school, after all.

 

The elevator dinged and the doors slid open to let the boys out. Thankfully, the Tech building wasn't...It didn't have an east or west wing. Once they got off the elevator, it was just a row of classrooms and lockers to their left and more lockers to their right.

It didn't take long for AJ to find Locker Number 0602, Dean's was three lockers to the right of his. And the lockers here aren't the little cubbies AJ was used to in TNA High.

Here, their lockers were full-length steel ones and were wide enough to fit a small guy of AJ's build in. AJ just hoped that he wouldn't be stuffed in his own locker at some point this year.

The other lockers were...colorful to say the least, compared to AJ's blank white one.The one next to AJ's locker was painted to look like a bisexual pride flag, the locker next to that was bejewelled with cheap stick-on jewels and the one next to that was painted pink with the word 'Fearless' painted in typical varsity script down the length of its door.

AJ glanced to Dean's, and the younger man had either hired a great graffiti artist or spraypainted it himself. The length of the locker door was painted in camouflage colors, barbed wire painted to look as if it was poking from the vents and blood splatter effects were strategically placed to make it seem as hyper-realistic as possible.

It was like a work of art on a highschool locker door.

 

Dean caught AJ staring at his locker door and after retrieving needed books and extra paper, he slammed the door as hard as he can to jar AJ back to reality. The way the new kid slightly jumped was hilarious.

"You didn't bring any art supplies with you, did you?" He said it so matter-of-factly, like AJ should just know that he should've brought art supplies. And that just made the older man feel even more like an idiot.

Dean saw the effect of his poor choice of words. "Don't worry, it's not a requirement but teachers encourage creativity and individuality here. Painting your locker and dressing how you want is a few examples." 

Well, that explained the booty shorts and the overly-ripped jeans and the Rainbow Dash hair AJ had seen so far. Compared to everyone else, AJ felt so plain.

In TNA High, they were told to wear uniforms, cut their hair a certain way and design notebooks according to a format. That's why the Georgian felt so awkward while he was choosing his clothes the night before.

Take out the bullies and the cliques, and WWEA was turning out to be such a cool place.

 

"Did you paint it yourself?" AJ gestured to Dean's locker as he opened his own. Man, even their fucking combination locks were fancy. Not like the key and lock he had gotten so used to in his previous school.

Dean cleared his throat, and AJ didn't need to see the blonde's face to know that Dean was taken aback by the question.

"Yeah," He confirmed. "Pretty proud of it actually. I learned something useful from the streets, y'know? And it's become a part-time job."

AJ was amazed at Dean's level of skill. "Yeah? How so?"

"School sometimes makes me compete in art competitions, get a lot of publicity and I get people contacting me about wanting a commission or whatever. Some students pay me to design their lockers. Stuff like that."

"Whoa" was all AJ could say as he stuffed his Algebra textbook in his bag. After doing so, he closed his locker. "That's...that's awesome. How come you're still considered a...a, uh..."

"A loser?" Dean supplied, and AJ nodded in confirmation. "Well, that's a story for another day. C'mon, class starts in half an hour and Mr. Regal...Man, you just gotta meet Mr. Regal!"

 

* * *

 

Mr. Regal, or William as he preferred to be called outside of class hours, was quickly becoming one of AJ's favorite teachers in the school. Dean kept urging the English teacher to tell AJ stories of past events in the school, some were too outlandish to believe.

"Nah, c'mon, that's impossible!" AJ refused. "I'm calling bull on that one, William."

William took deep breaths to recompose himself after his laughing fit. "I'm afraid it is possible, my boy. A whole chameleon was found dead in one of the cafeteria's soup batches. And up until now, we still have no clue as to how it got there."

Dean was seated next to AJ in front of their teacher, and the Ohioan casually put his feet up on the teacher's table but William didn't seem to mind. 

Eventually, students came pouring in just five minutes before class. By then, Mr. Regal let them choose their seats. AJ chose a seat in the middle row by the window and Dean picked a chair in the back of the class.

 

Familiar and unfamiliar faces were apparently part of the class: The half-blonde kid from the bus sat in front of AJ, Paige chose the chair in the farthest corner at the back of the room, and Nikki and two of her friends were situated front and center to suck up...er, learn as much as they can.

The class settled in their chosen seats, the one next to AJ's was still empty but he was fine with that. Seatmates got him in trouble too many times.

Mr. Regal introduced himself to the class and then came the dreaded 'Hi, my name is' moment for AJ since he was a new student. 

"Mr. Styles, if you could please stand and introduce–"

 

The door of the classroom opened, bouncing off the wall adjacent to it as a sickly familiar voice said a not-so-genuine "Sorry I'm late."

AJ turned his head to the direction of the new entrant and immediately wished he hadn't.

Jericho was apparently part of the class, and AJ would rather bury himself into the ground rather than have to introduce himself with that guy as part of his audience.

 

"Well, Mr. Jericho," Mr. Regal commented in an indifferent tone, as if this happened often. "There are no more available seats except for the one next to Mr. Styles."

Jericho scoffed and unashamingly said "Pretty sure his last name is the only style he's got" which caused the class to explode into laughter. AJ glanced at Dean in the back, who clenched his fists so tightly that his knuckles turned white.

When the class seemed to not want to cease their laughing, Mr. Regal got an item out of his desk. It was only when he raised it up in the air when AJ realized it was an airhorn. The teacher covered one ear and held the horn as far away from the other one as possible before pressing the trigger.

The students seemed to quiet down after that.

"That was not a very good joke, Mr. Jericho," Mr. Regal said as he put away the airhorn. "Next time you decide to be funny, try not to make it at the expense of others."

Jericho didn't seem to hear the short lecture as he dragged his chair a bit farther away from the new student before placing his bag on the wire basket attached to the legs of the chair.

AJ was relieved that Mr. Regal had forgotten about the introduction. Well, he had Jericho to thank for–

 

"Mr. Styles, you may proceed with your introduction."

 

 _Dammit_ , AJ said all known swear words in his head as he stood up from his chair and made his way over to the front. Even worse was that it seemed Jericho was planning to pay attention.

AJ didn't feel comfortable with all these eyes on him, judging him and waiting for him to slip up and say something stupid.

It was just introduction, AJ thought to himself. So what if the guy who winked at him and could quite possibly be the person who'd make his highschool experience a living hell was going to listen to him?

AJ's throat suddenly felt dry. But he could do this. Just to get it over with.

 

"My name's AJ Styles," Dork factor: Plus two points. "I'm from Gainesville, Georgia–"

"Redneck!" 

And there it was. The wave of laughter being directed towards him again, but before he could resort to crying, Mr. Regal made use of the airhorn once more and almost made AJ jumped out of his skin.

AJ decided to press forward, Jericho watching him like a goddamn hawk.

"I'm a transfer student from..." Wait, should he say it? He looked over to Dean in the back, who was making slashing gestures at his neck but he didn't seem to be looking at AJ.

No, he was signalling to Mr. Regal.

And Mr. Regal seemed to understand.

 

"I'm very sorry to cut your introduction short, AJ," He said plainly. "But I do need to get some time for rules and requirements. We shall continue this some other time. You may go back to your seat."

Now,  _that's_ a cool teacher. 

AJ went back to his chair, Jericho's piercing blue gaze aimed at the back of the brunette's head, as if silently threatening AJ to reveal the school from which he transfered from.

Sure enough, Mr. Regal went on with the rules of the class, which were simple enough:

Sleeping is not allowed.

Gadgets are to be kept on silent mode and in their bags during class.

Valuable belongings should be kept in the students' lockers.

And any offense, minor or major, would result in detention.

"And class, you should keep a portfolio for all of your paperwork," Mr. Regal reminded. "That way, you shouldn't be able to lose your papers. Am I right, Miss Nikki?"

The head cheerleader answered with an exasperated "Yes, Mr. Regal" and with that, the basic recap lessons started.

 

 

"Mr. Styles, remember to check for your dormitory reservation in the Students' Resource department office," Mr. Regal said as he straightened out a few papers on his desk. English class was over and students were pouring out of the room.

"Mr. Ambrose?" Dean raised a hand as he slung his bagpack over his shoulder. "Please do help Mr. Styles with this task. New students have the tendency to be misled by the jocks when asking for directions."

Dean walked to the front of the class where AJ waited for him and gave William a two-fingered salute. "Will do, William. C'mon, AJ, the sooner we do that, the better."

 

* * *

 

The trip from the Technology building to the main one was exhausting but there were plenty of trees around to keep them under the shade as Dean and AJ made their way to the Students' Resource Department.

All of this; The travelling to different buildings for different classes, the dorms, the state-of-the-art facilities. It all felt like college.

And AJ didn't know how to feel about that.

 

The lady at the front desk looked a bit too young to be the one to handle all the students' dorm records. 

"Hey, AJ," AJ looked over to Dean, who wasn't even looking at him. More like, greeting the woman at the desk. "Is Miss Neidhart here?"

"Nope," Other AJ answered as she looked up from the logbook she was writing on. She pushed her glasses up her nose. "She called in sick so I have to sit in for her. Good to see you, Dee."

AJ cleared his throat to remind Dean of the actual reason why they were there in the first place.

 

"Oh, right," Dean gestured to Other AJ. "AJ Styles, meet AJ Lee. She's a student employee here at WWEA."

AJ Lee stood up from her chair to properly greet AJ Styles with a handshake. Man, was everybody's grip in this school vice-like?

"To avoid confusion," She started with a cheery yet professional tone. "You can just call me April. So, I'm assuming that you're here about your dorm reservations."

She opened a drawer on her desk and pulled out a red folder, quickly checking the papers inside. She then went over to the corkboard that held all of the keys to the dorms and took one pair out of the bunch.

 

"You have a roommate," She informed before handing the keys over. "If you'd like, we can make arrangements to–"

"No, that won't be necessary," AJ reassured. "I can room with somebody else."

April raised an eyebrow. A warning. "Are you absolutely sure? Because once you take these keys and you sign the forms, you can't change rooms."

"Think about it real hard, AJ," Dean helped. "I already know who my roommate is, and that's Roman."

AJ thought about it for a moment. He was sure whoever it was, both of them could coexist. He held out his right hand, palm up, as he said with confidence "I'm sure. Now give me my keys."

April smiled at him, a somehow condescending one, as she dropped the keys into AJ's hand.

"Alright, just come over here and sign your paper, Mister Tough Guy"

 

It didn't take too long; Four or five of AJ's signature were all it took for him to officially own his dormitory.

Well, partially own, anyway.

He and Dean bade April goodbye as they left the office, shutting the door behind them.

 

* * *

The time leading up to Lunch was a blur.

AJ and Dean had to go on their separate ways by the third period, and AJ was stuck with the rinse-repeat process of 'Hi, my name is'.

Jericho didn't seem to be in any of AJ's other classes, which was both a relief and...something else for AJ. But mostly relief. He didn't want to feel a weird sensation in his stomach whenever those bright blue eyes glanced his way.

 

Between third and fourth period, AJ went to his locker to get an extra red pen since the one he had in his bag ran out of ink. All the while, Jericho and his jock friends were busy picking on a poor guy by pushing him into the trash can, which nobody bothered to stop. There were no teachers around and the student prefects didn't seem to care.

When AJ closed his locker, he caught a glimpse of Jericho looking at him. The blonde quickly looked away when he realized he'd been caught.

Okay, now the big bad bully was acting shy around him. Interesting.

 

The cafeteria was absolutely spacious. It was in the main building, and it took a few minutes of walking until they finally reached the space.

There were enough tables to accommodate every clique with a few empty ones to spare for the newbies and the average people.

Each round table was big enough to seat at least 15 people, and at the farthest end was the kitchen. 

AJ and Dean both took trays of their own, and had to choose from a selection of pretty decent meals. At least the food here somewhat resembled actual food.

The Georgian just settled for two slices of pizza, a cup of pudding and a bottle of energy drink. Dean just basically scooped up two handfuls on French fries and grabbed a bottle of water.

 

As promised, he and Dean met up with Roman at lunch, which was surprising because AJ had initially thought Roman would sit at the jocks' table.

Yep, Roman was truly a cool guy.

He even saved them a seat and the three ate lunch in peace, no one interrupting which helped AJ ease up some.

AJ finally had the courage to ask the one question burning in his mind.

"Hey, Roman?"

The Samoan hummed in acknowledgement as he took a sip of water.

 

"You know every one of the jocks, right?"

"Yeah, why? Some of them bothering you?"

Oh, wow. Protected by a jock. That felt nice. But AJ had to focus on his question.

"What's with the Jericho guy?"

"You mean Chris?"

So that was his name. Chris Jericho. That...sounded nice, for some reason.

"Yeah, he's been...I don't know, looking at me weird."

"Weird how? Like, 'I wanna beat you up then throw you in the dumpster' weird?"

 

No, that absolutely was not how Chris looked at him during English class. It wasn't hateful or angry, but it wasn't happy either. It was like interest. But then again, he couldn't tell that to Roman, could he?

"Never mind," He waved it off as he grabbed another French fry from the pile Dean got for them. "'S probably nothing."

"Well, if something happens," Dean supplied with a mouth full of fries but swallowed them down before continuing. "Let me or Roman know. We'll set him straight for ya."

 

* * *

 

The day finally ended some time after 5:30 PM and with the help of his ever-present tourguide Dean, AJ found his way to the Boys' Dormitory.

A modest little area: Just a three-story building with beautiful landscaping and a few basketball hoops nearby in case anybody wanted to play.

Dean let AJ go inside. "I got a client I have to make a mural for" was his reason, and AJ thanked him for everything he'd done for the entire day. The Ohioan went off in the direction of the football field (A client? Really, Dean?) and told AJ to get settled.

Room 2F11, was written on the key ring tag. AJ had quickly learned of WWE Academy's room numbering system, and he went up to the second floor.

Sure enough, Room 2F11 was the first door to AJ's right. Outside the room was a big cubby wherein AJ's belongings were kept.

He unlocked the cubby and took his other bags and fumbled with the keys until he finally opened the door.

 

True to the school's promise, the dorm was fully furnished, painted a nice mint green. The beds were placed on opposite sides on the room for privacy and a hint of separation.

What ruined the good vibes of the room was the guy on the bed on the left side of the room. 

 

"Oh, fuck no."

 


	3. Stuck With You

"Took the words right out of my mouth." Chris said as he looked up from the pile of books and papers on his bed, a not-so-happy look on his face. 

Did April know about this? She must have known about this. So that's what the double-checking was all about. Well, it was too late to file for a dormitory reassignment. But this was Chris Jericho as his dorm mate; The jock who winked at him at the football field, the jock who made AJ's inside churn without doing much other than sit in his seat. 

Now he was the jock who was going to be staying in the same room as AJ.

 

AJ stood at the door way clutching his bags in both hands. Chris seemed to take ownership of the left side of the room, his side of the wall was littered with all sorts of band posters, varsity flaglets and pinned above the headboard of his bed was a gold and red varsity jacket with the letters 'CJ' embroidered on the left side. 

 _'Must be his old jacket'_ , AJ concluded.

"Are you gonna stand there like a stupid idiot, or are you gonna come inside?" Chris turned back to his...studying? "Close the door. You're letting out the AC."

AJ did notice that it was a bit cold in the room as he gently kicked the door closed. He settled his heavy bags on the bed and looked around the room.

There was a computer desk next to Chris' bed, a small bulletin board above it displayed Polaroid photos, concert tickets, and sticky notes for various reminders for what seemed to be football games and upcoming exams. There was a little window nook opposite of the door with cushions and pillows and even a small compartment underneath to store books and other stuff. Both of the beds had dressers at the foot of them, a pile of clean clothes and a pair of white shoes were on top of AJ's. 

The brunette inspected the clothing; A pair of maroon shorts, a plain white shirt with 'A. STYLES' embroidered on the left sleeve. The uniform set also included socks and a pair white shoes. 

 

"That's the only set of uniform you'll be required to wear," Chris informed, scribbling on a piece of paper and switching between books. "The laundry chute is right down the hall."

"Thanks..." AJ said because that was not awkward at all. "I'm AJ Styles, by the way."

Chris seemed to ignore that, maybe thinking that he didn't need to introduce himself. That was fine, AJ had gone used to it in TNA High. So AJ left Chris alone to his books, instead focusing on how he's going to decorate his side of the room. He didn't bring a lot of his personal belongings, the bulk of his gaming stuff was back in Georgia and the only ones he brought with his were his PSP, 3DS, the chargers for both gadgets, a pair of headphones and a few memory cards.

He had his video game posters but he didn't have the courage to hang them up, not with Chris as his roommate. But then again, he was gonna get bullied either way so he just decided to put them up some other day. He stored his frequently-used clothes in the dresser, the rest were kept in his bags which he kept under his bed.

 

It took about an hour until he finally got his stuff sorted out, his textbooks were neatly placed on the nightstand next to the bed. He reminded himself to go buy a few things to decorate with.

Chris stood from his bed and started to put away his books and placed them on top of his desk. And– Oh, he was...in his boxers. 

AJ wasn't sure why he noticed. But unfortunately, Chris got dressed in a black shirt and jeans and slipped on his sneakers. Next was his varsity jacket, wallet, keys and phone, and he's ready to go.

 

"Hey."

AJ was reading a book in the window nook they had when Chris called his attention, tapping his arm for good measure. 

The Georgian looked up and, damn. Chris looked good with his blonde hair slightly spiked.

"I'm going out for a while," The older student announced. "Don't touch my stuff."

And of course, AJ was dumb enough to ask "Where are you going?"

Chris already had one hand gripping the doorknob when he turned back to face his new roommate, a mischievous smile on his face. 

AJ's heart betrayed him by skipping a beat.

"None of your business, nerd." And with that rude comment, he left AJ alone in their dorm.

And AJ wished he could punch himself in the face for screaming into his pillow like a fucking schoolgirl.

* * *

There was a telephone on the wall a few inches away from the door. Hung next to it was a small notebook of the numbers of the school and the rooms in the Boys' Dormitory.

AJ made use of the phone to call Dean, who was listed under 'Ambrose, D./Reigns, R.' AJ told Dean about his dorm situation, to which Dean proudly scolded him for.

"I told you, April told you, to think about it, man! Now you just gotta tough it out."

AJ sighed through his nose as he laid in his back on his bed. He stared up at the ceiling, as if it held all the answers to his problems. 

But the ever-helpful Dean gave him advice nonetheless. 

"If you leave him alone and stay out of his way, he'll just act like you're not there," He chuckled from the other end of the call, a quick boyish giggle. 

"And if you stay out of his business, he'll  _really_ act like you're not there."

Great, AJ thought. Chris was one of those guys who jerks off during ungodly hours or brings random girls back to their dorm.

Their conversation ended ten minutes later, AJ glancing at his alarm clock which displayed 7:34 PM. He stayed up two extra hours arranging his books for the next day and doing what little homework he had. 

By 9:55, he was fast asleep.

 

It was around 1 AM when AJ heard the door unlock. Thinking it was an intruder, he peeked one eye open under a curtain of his brown hair, his right hand inching lower and lower until he felt the handle of the baseball bat he kept for emergency situations.

The intruder turned out to be Chris Jericho when the upperclassman turned on his bedside lamp.

Chris looked like someone had jumped him and judging by the hickeys on his neck and the lipstick mark on his cheek, AJ was right in his assumption.

Chris was  _jumped_.

 

The blonde seemed to have only turned on his light just to sit on his bed to take off his shoes and slide them under the bed. After doing so, he went to sleep in his many layers of clothing.

Meanwhile, AJ watched him from the other side of the room, a bit curious as to where Chris had been.

Maybe it was best if he didn't think about it too much. 

Instead, he got up from bed and walked into what he liked to call 'The Forbidden Zone' but caught himself.

What was he doing?

Well, for one, Chris was still in his precious varsity jacket. Surely, Chris wouldn't want it torn as a result of tossing and turning in his bed.

AJ managed to take the jacket off of its owner without waking the latter up. He folded the garment up neatly and placed it on top of Chris' dresser so the jock could easily find it in the morning.

Then came the most important question of AJ's highschool life:

 

Should he take off Chris' shirt or not?

 

On one hand, he figured he should. Sleeping with a shirt on probably wasn't the most comfortable sensation.

On the other hand, AJ didn't want to deal with 'Why am I topless' the next morning and be the canvas for a black eye courtesy of Jericho.

So AJ just left it on, choosing to just cover Chris' body with his thick blanket. And to add to the list of motherly things he'd done for people he barely knew, he reached over to turn off Chris' bedside lamp.

"Goodnight, Chris." The brunette whispered before he could think about it as he walked back over to bed. He was settled back under the covers and just before he could fall asleep, he heard that familiar voice saying probably the most surprising thing AJ has heard:

 

"Goodnight, AJ."

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I am honestly just projecting my idea of a perfect school. And now, I really wanna enroll in WWE Academy.
> 
> Comments and kudos are welcome, as always. For prompts and ideas for this fic, send them my way via ask on my Tumblr:
> 
> crimson-of-the-earth.tumblr.com


	4. Turning Point

The new kid was already gone by the time Chris woke up at around 7 AM. No doubt his roommate was hanging out with Fagbrose again. 

Chris pushed himself up off the bed where he'd been sleeping face down, and immediately the painful effects of 68 tequila shots were making themselves known, and Chris could do nothing but flop back down onto his pillow. 

He noticed that his jacket was gone. Thinking that he'd somehow misplaced it –Or worse, gave it to some random girl–, he quickly sat up in bed, his head feeling as if ten elephants have been using it as a trampoline, and looked around the room. He immediately spotted the garment neatly placed on his dresser.

Weird, because he could remember sleeping in it the night before.

Another weird revelation was when Chris turned his head to glance at the alarm clock on his nightstand. Next to the clock was a bottle of Gatorade, a few pills of aspirin and a handwritten note. Chris scooted further up his bed closer to the bedside table to grab the note.

It was difficult to read the damn thing with a damn hangover but Chris managed to understand the note:

 

_'Try not to miss any classes. And also, Roman called earlier and told me to remind you that you have practice today._

_You don't owe me anything but it would be nice if you don't shove me into a locker or trash can._

_-AJ'_

 

 _'Pfft, yeah right,'_ Chris thought to himself as he crumpled the note up and tossed it aside. Styles probably just wanted some type of jock immunity or whatever just because he did a nice thing. Well, too bad highschool didn't work like that.

That kid just had this effect on him, Chris could admit that much. But what exactly that effect was still bothered the jock. He couldn't pinpoint exactly what it was, and that's what angered Chris. He didn't like feelings things he didn't understand, and Styles is messing him up without even knowing what he's doing.

What a fucking asshole. 

After taking two pills and downing them with the Gatorade, Chris pondered whether or not to attend class. At the very least, he could attend practice but he couldn't miss any more lessons since he's already on probation and in danger of getting suspended from the team.

Well, it wouldn't be the first time he'd attend class with a hangover.

 

* * *

 

"Man, you look horrible" wasn't the worst comment Kevin Owens had told him.

 

He'd met up with his friends at their usual spot in the football field, Cena seemingly missing the extra limb known as his girlfriend, as he greeted them with half-hearted fistbumps.

They were seated at the bleachers and Chris took a seat on the lowermost level, his friends a step or two above him. 

 

"Gee, Owens," Chris turned his head to glare at the chubby man. "As if I didn't already feel like a piece of shit."

Kevin raised up placating hands. "Not my fault you agreed to a drinking game."

"So did you get that girl's number from last night?" Alberto asked him, a sly smile on his face.

Chris shook his head, chuckling under his breath. "You guys should know me by now. I'm a hit-and-run kinda guy."

"What happened to 'I would never sleep with a girl that looks like a failed Barbie experiment'?" Kevin asked as he stuffed his varsity jacket in his bag.

"Yeah, well, you have yourself to blame for that, Kevin. But thank god I don't remember a lot from last night. Where the fuck is Reigns, anyway?"

Instead of giving him a vocal answer, the others all just pointed to the opposite side of bleachers where Reigns was hanging out with that loser Ambrose again. Man, when will Roman ever learn that hanging out with that guy is bad news?

His thought was interrupted when Styles came into view, sitting down on the step just below the other two students. Chris thought AJ looked ridiculous in his shirt and hooded vest and those tight jeans that made his ass look phenomenal.

 

Chris mentally shook himself. Where did that last bit come from? And since when was he so interested in an ass on a _guy_? He wasn't a fucking fag, for crying out loud.

The rest of his group talked about football and plans for after school, Chris on the other hand was busy studying the brunette from afar. There was just _something_ about AJ Styles that was just interesting. Chris was aware that he probably looked creepy but who's gonna have the balls to tell that to his face?

* * *

 

 

"Dude, don't look now, but Jericho's totally checking you out." Dean announced as he looked up at the early morning sky to make it seem like he was just talking about something else.

AJ raised an eyebrow at him. Now, that would just be impossible. There was no way that that would be true."What are you, a sixteen year-old girl?" 

"Nah, man, he's right," Roman confirmed as he pretended to dig through his bag, but AJ knew the football player was just shielding the fact that he was making sure that Chris was looking their way. "Jericho's looking right at you, man."

Like a dumbass, AJ whipped his head to see for himself and Dean playfully pulled AJ's hood over to cover its owner's eyes. "I said don't look, jackass."

AJ tried to get his hood back off his head but Dean's grip was firm. "Is he still looking?" Because it was a little unsettling, and AJ really didn't want to get in trouble. Was it because of the note he left earlier? 

It was just wishful thinking that Chris would consider it. But AJ really didn't want to be stuffed in a locker, or have his head held down the toilet.

 

Dean quickly glanced at the other blonde from across the field, and looked away just as fast. "Yep."

Roman pitched in, and AJ immediately understood the worry in his tone. "And it looks like he's coming over here."

 _'Wait, what_?' AJ pushed Ambrose's hands away and threw his hood back and sure enough, Chris was coming over, looking as if he was making the dumbest decision of his life. AJ wouldn't put it past Chris to actually think of it as such.

Roman stood up from his seat, his sling bagpack already on his back once Chris jogged the rest of the way over.

 

"Hey, man," The Samoan greeted, Chris nodding in acknowledgment. "I see you survived your hangover."

 "More like learning to deal with it," The blonde mused with a smile. "I, uh, someone left me with some aspirin." Chris' attention flicked over to AJ, who was pretending to busy himself by reading something on his phone. But the very obvious tinge of red in his cheeks gave away the fact that he was listening.

Roman followed Chris' quick glance, and immediately understood. "Yeah? Might be someone we know?"

Chris was trying so very hard to not keep glancing at the preoccupied brunette but it was damn near impossible with him being this close. He just hoped Roman wouldn't notice. "You could say that. Anyway, thanks for calling earlier. I actually forgot we had practice today."

"It was actually your roommate who picked up." Roman pointed out, pretending to not know who that roommate was to save both AJ and Chris the embarrassment. "Good thing they were already awake when I called."

"Yeah, good thing," Chris admitted. "Anyway, I just came over here to tell you that. I'll see you at practice, right?"

The tattooed student scoffed. "Course you would. Unlike you, I actually care about attending on time."

Jericho jokingly punched the younger man's bicep. "Man, that's low. I care about being on time too. I just care more about having fun."

 

\--

 

"You actually left him aspirin?" Dean questioned once he and AJ were in Chemistry class. He and AJ decided to just sit next to each other in case the teacher would assign lab partners. 

The Ohioan still couldn't believe AJ actually cared enough about a jock –The mearnest jock in school, mind you– to leave him aspirin when he was hungover. It just sounded crazy, which seemed to be a recurring thing in AJ's early start in WWE Academy.

Tuesdays were kicked off by Chemistry for both Dean and AJ, thankfully Chris wasn't part of that class as well which helped AJ distance himself from the jock. He and the rest of the class were just waiting for the teacher to arrive, who was late by twenty minutes. But since they couldn't leave during class hours, the students took it upon themselves to make the classroom a paper airport.

 

"I just figured he'd need it," AJ explained, trying to fight the flush threatening to creep up his cheeks. But the way Dean was looking at him with that smug smile was indicative of how the brunette was failing. "Besides, Roman did tell me to remind him that they have practice today."

"Just admit that you did it because you think it gives you a pass from their bullying," Dean urged, that damn smile still on his face. "Sorry to say, man, but there's no excuse. It's survival of the fittest here."

"Whatever."

AJ took out the earbuds connected to his phone, placing one bud in each ear and played a bit of music to drown out the sound of chatter and quick yelps of pain. Dean was talking to one girl from across their lab desk, the blonde ignoring the girl's not-so-smooth flirting. 

It took a little over three minutes until the teacher arrived. A tall, tattooed woman with red hair and a mischievous aura to her looks dressed in some band shirt, a denim jacket, jeans and boots. The other guys in the room seemed to straighten up a bit in their seats as she walked in.

 _'She's probably a substitute,'_  AJ assumed as he placed the earbuds back in his bag and placed the latter object in the compartment under his and Dean's desk.

The woman placed her messenger bag on her desk, and casually sat on the surface of the table.

 

"So," She said it so sharply that AJ and a few other students visibly flinched. "I don't think I've had some of you in my class before," The teacher looked over to Dean. "'Cept for you, Ambrose. If I didn't know any better, I'd say you love being in my class."

AJ looked over at his seatmate, who just shrugged at the allegation with a confident smile. "I prefer to call it mastering the subject, teach."

"What, is mastering titties not enough for you anymore, Mister Titty Master?"

Did she really just say that? Was she allowed to say that? Sure, WWE Academy was pretty slack when it came to their dress code but this was different. AJ's eyes widened and his attention switched to Dean and the teacher then back again.

The class, including Dean, didn't seem to be as shocked as the transferee was. Instead, they burst into laughter, some of them even striking their desks in the hilarity. 

"Alright, ya little cunt nuggets," AJ just hoped this was just a prank. The things this woman said in front a class of underaged students were just unbelievable. "For those of you who don't know me, I'm Lita Hardy. Now, I know almost all of you know who I am but I noticed a new student here–"

Miss (Miss? Missus?) Hardy raised an inked arm to present AJ to the class. _Oh, God. Not this again_.

"Can the brown-haired kid wearing a gaming-themed shirt under a hooded vest please come up here so the class can see you?" 

That didn't sound so bad. AJ jumped off the steel high stool he was sitting on and made his way to the front, a random guy whispering "Teacher's pet" when he passed by. Miss Hardy pulled AJ closer to her side as soon as the student was close enough and slung a tattooed arm across the young man's shoulders.

 

"So what's your name, slugger? And where you from?" She asked as she slightly shook AJ to indicate excitement. 

AJ had already been called redneck, hick, farm boy, nerd, and faggot in previous incarnations of this moment so what could be said that would surprise him?

He cleared his throat. "I'm AJ Styles– "

"You from the South, kid?" Miss Hardy interrupted. Oh, right. AJ's accent probably gave his Southern roots away. AJ prepared himself for the inevitable insult that would either come from a student or the woman herself.

He nodded. "From Georgia, yes."

Huh, the class was silent that time. AJ didn't know if he should be happy or worried that he'd somehow made them hate him or something. Miss Hardy nudged him to continue his introduction.

 

Unbeknownst to him, Miss Hardy was glaring at the rest of the class. _'Don't even think about it'_

 

"So are you a new student here at WWE Academy?" She pressed, playfully roughing up AJ's brown hair the way a mother would her son's.

Nice of her.

"I'm actually a transferee from..." There it was again; The uncertainty of whether or not to reveal his previous school. He looked over to Dean, looking as clueless as his friend. So Miss Hardy wasn't as close to Dean to know the signal.

AJ settled for standing on tiptoes to whisper the information to his instructor. And thank goodness she understood. 

"Ah, I was a teacher there a few years back," She announced with a sour look on her face, "Pretty shitty place. Well, you're here now so you don't have to worry about that stuff anymore. Except for, y'know, bullies trying to drown you in a toilet."

AJ had to laugh at that one. She wasn't so bad.

She allowed AJ to go back to his seat, and discussed what was taught to the students the previous year in Biology.

 

 

* * *

 

The bell rang for second period, and the students gathered their things and left the room with Miss Hardy reminding them one last time of their quiz two weeks away. The students didn't seem to listen but Miss Hardy didn't seem to care. 

If the students forgot, that wouldn't be her fault.

 

"So, you got an idea for your locker yet?" Dean asked him as they headed for their lockers located just outside the Chemistry Lab. AJ completely forgot about it, and his locker stood out from the rest like a sore thumb.

He unlocked the damn thing, stored his Chemistry book inside and took the stuff he needed for the next class.

"I don't have any art supplies," He admitted apologetically. "And I don't know how to paint and design and stuff."

Dean closed his camouflage locker, twisting the lock just in case before turning to AJ. "I could paint it for you," The way he said it was so casual, like he didn't charge money for painting lockers. "I could borrow some supplies from Art class."

AJ locked his items inside, and focused his attention on Dean. Shit, he seemed genuine. "Sure. How much?"

"Way to make me sound like a hooker, Styles," The blonde joked, his dimples making him look childish. "But seriously, don't worry about it. No pay, since you're new here and all. Just give me a color, a concept and a can of spray paint, and this bad boy will be ready by tomorrow."

"Tomorrow?"

"I work after school. That way, it won't ruin the surprise. I take pictures of my clients' reactions, by the way. Just a heads-up."

 

AJ let that sink in: Dean, who'd already helped AJ through so much, even without a reason to, was offering to paint his locker for free. That was pretty awesome.

"Wow," He muttered, not really knowing what else to say. "Thanks, Dean. I, uh, I appreciate that."

Dean waved off the Georgian's gratitude, telling him not to think much of it, before he excused himself to head to his next class. "We'll talk about the details later. Just have your concept and colors straightened out before lunch."

AJ bade him goodbye and headed for the elevators since his next class was held in the main building. Good thing he still had an hour to spare before it starts. He stepped foot inside the elevator, which apparently already had one passenger. If it was any other person, AJ would just ignore them and keep to himself.

But apparently, he was going to be alone with Chris Jericho. Again.

 

AJ stood to the opposite corner from Chris, trying to pretend like he didn't notice who the other student was. And Chris has to make it even more awkward by saying "Thanks for the aspirin, by the way."

"N-No problem," AJ's voice picked a horrible time to crack. Hopefully, Chris wouldn't call him out on it. The younger man cleared his throat. "Don't worry about it."

More tension. Man, this was just frustrating. Why was the elevator taking so long?

Just so there'd be some noise to break the stillness, AJ took the intiative to extend their conversation. 

"How's your hangover?"

"'Bout halfway gone," Chris answered politely, the thumb of his right hand drumming against one of the straps of his bagpack. "I took the whole blister tray. Hope you don't mind."

"Don't mind at all. I got a whole pack of the stuff."

Chris gave him a questioning look. "Why, you get hangovers a lot?"

AJ responded with a tap to his left temple. "Migraines. Been dealing with them for as long as I can remember."

"Sounds like you just wasted an entire tray on me, since you need it so much."

"Yeah, but I only get migraines three times a month so I only use them when necessary."

 

And suddenly, the atmosphere became tense again. AJ was expecting a joke or two about his migraines but Chris didn't seem to have any or didn't care to think of a joke. Which was fine, AJ didn't need any more jokes at his expense that day.

What he did not expect was Chris dropping his bag, muttering a quiet "Fuck it" under his breath as he reached both hands to cup AJ's face. AJ was even more shocked when the jock leaned closer to press a kiss to his lips.

At first, AJ was taken aback to respond because stuff like this didn't usually happen. AJ wasn't used to this, didn't experience it in his tenure in TNA High.

But his body responded against his will, his hands reaching up to grip Chris' arms. Eventually, the brunette had gotten over his initial shock, and gave Jericho access to his mouth. 

 

Chris took a fixation in biting and suckling on AJ's bottom lip, nibbling on the plump flesh just to hear the small whimper from the younger man.

He could feel AJ shiver under his fingertips, which had gone down further to settle on AJ's slim hips. The blonde's thumbs slipped underneath the fabric of AJ's shirt to rub small circles on the flesh under there.

 

Just before the kiss could lead to something else, the elevator dinged and Chris immediately pulled away to pick up his bag from where he'd dropped it just before the doors slid open to reveal that they'd reached the ground floor.

Thankfully, there was no one waiting outside because Chris turned to look at the younger man, holding down a button to hold the doors open.

"Say a word of this, and you're dead." 

The threat was unnecessary because AJ didn't think he'd be talking for a while as he tried to comprehend what the hell just happened.

 

But Chris didn't seem to be worried about it, the jock exiting the elevator and leaving a confused AJ behind him.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Can you tell that I have no idea how to write kissing scenes?
> 
> Also, the nickname 'Fagbrose' isn't an original nickname I thought of. It actually came from another HS-inspired fic entitled 'Bully' by minusmelle here on AO3.
> 
> Comments and Kudos are welcome, like always. So if you got any feedback, leave a comment cause it helps me improve a lot.
> 
> Any questions and/or suggestions can be sent via ask or DM on my Tumblr:
> 
> crimson-of-the-earth.tumblr. com
> 
> (And yes, I actually do answer stuff regarding this fic there.)


	5. See You There

_[That Friday...]_

 

AJ didn't remember the rest of the week after that. He didn't remember leaving the elevator that Tuesday but next thing he knew, he just finished his final class for the week, which was Basic Algebra with Miss Stratus.

He had met up with Dean in the football field after school, their plans of discussing AJ's locker design over lunch having to be rescheduled to Friday Lunch period since Dean was sent to compete in an art competition as a last minute entrant. The blonde returned on Friday with a gold medal.

 

Dean had studied the design AJ gave him, turning his head as if he was visualizing the best angle for it. He then asked if he could borrow a pencil, AJ handing him a pen instead, and Dean set to work scribbling on the other side of the paper. AJ left him to his work, taking out his earbuds and listened to a bit of music. 

The brunette apparently fell asleep because Dean shook him awake to ask for his opinion on his locker design. 

AJ's original concept was a sentence he'd heard as a child in Gainesville, 'I Am Phenomenal'. Dean had translated it into a circular insignia instead, saying that it would be difficult to fit on the actual locker door.

"It wouldn't work even if I have painted vertically," Dean explained. "So I just made it like this logo here as 'P1' but you still have the word 'Phenomenal' in the space between this inner and outer circle."

AJ nodded. It turned out pretty awesome, and he wanted it as a poster now. He could probably ask Dean for that, too. "It's great. But are you sure it'll fit? The locker door's wide enough but I don't think this would...y'know..."

Ambrose looked at his design again then erased the word 'Phenomenal' and wrote it again a few inches from its original spot.

"How about we just don't make it a whole circle? Like, the sides are gonna get cut off by the surrounding lockers, but you're still gonna see the P1 logo and all the other details. And I guess I could just have the sentence 'I Am Phenomenal' a few inches above the top vent. What do you think?"

 

AJ approved the design because there was nothing to complain about or change it. It was perfect. Dean then asked him for the colors he wanted, and AJ already had three thought out.

"Black, dark blue and light blue," He answered confidently. "And can you have them blend into each other?"

"Like an ombré effect?"

"Yeah, that's it. So the darkest point would be the top right corner."

Dean nodded his head, his eyes having that far away look in them again. "Alright, I think we're done here," He concluded, and AJ handed over the scribbled design. "Go to your locker tomorrow at 8 AM 'cause that's probably when I'd be finished."

"So you won't be sleeping tonight?" AJ felt bad about that. Dean had to stay up late just to do a commission for nothing.

"I bring a sleeping bag with me," The blonde explained as he stuffed the paper into his hoodie pocket. It just occurred to him that he's never seen Dean without a hoodie. Granted that it's only been a week since AJ had been here but still.

"Don't look so guilty, dude" Dean nudged the brunette with his shoulder. "I'm used to it. I mean, it's money earned, right? Besides, it's a weekend. I won't be dozing off in some class or whatever. And it's fun. It's kinda like sleeping in a haunted house, y'know? Sleeping in the hallways is always a spooky business."

 

Dean then proceeds to tell AJ all about his past paranormal experiences, but AJ's thoughts drifted back to what had happened in the elevator with Chris.

What was that all about? A dare? A prank? Or did Chris notice that AJ had been staring while they passed each other by on their way to their classes, and just decided to mess with him?

It wouldn't surprise AJ anymore if that was Chris' reason. There was probably a catch, something. Maybe Chris' friends were having a bet. Maybe the elevator had a security camera and Chris was gonna use the footage to show to everyone.

The latter one was a bit stupid. Jericho would just sink along with AJ if he used the security tapes since he was the one who initiated the kiss in the first place. 

But what if Chris would edit the first part out, tell everyone that it was AJ who pulled him in and–

 

"Yo, Earth to Styles!" Dean waved a hand in front of AJ's face, snapping his fingers a couple of times for good measure. "You there, buddy?"

"What?" AJ came back to reality, realized that Dean had said something else. "Sorry, man. Just...just have a lot on my mind, I guess."

Dean raised an eyebrow. "You've been here for like a week, and you already got something bothering you. Must be pretty big. Wanna talk about it?"

"No," No, definitely not. Or at least not at the moment. AJ wasn't even sure if it actually happened. "It's nothing. Just homework stuff. What were you saying, by the way?"

"I said I have to go. I texted Roman a while ago to drive me to the nearest art store so I can buy new stuff. He's already in the parking lot waiting for me. I gotta go. You know your way back to the dorms, right?"

AJ gathered his things and stuffed them back in his bag, Dean doing the same. "Yeah  I'll see you tomorrow. And thanks for designing my locker for me. I wouldn't mind paying you, man. Really."

"And I told you it's fine," The younger man insisted, slinging his bag over his shoulder. "Totally free of charge. You don't know much about the payment methods here in WWEA so–"

 

"Wait. Payment methods?" That didn't sound good.

Dean nodded as he hopped the shallow height from the fifth step of the bleachers to the grass. 

"We don't use money here. Those who do, well, they don't usually ask for my services. Snooty little rich kids hire equally snooty professionals who make their lockers look like fucking Van Gogh or something. Pretty but has nothing to do with the kids' personalities, y'know? It's all about reputation here."

AJ followed Dean to the front of the main building where they would eventually part ways. Well, reputation was usually what mattered most in high school but WWEA always seemed to take everything to a whole new level.

"So what do students usually pay with?" ' _Please don't say sex, please don't say sex'_.

"Beer, usually," Oh, thank god. "But they get caught often so that's usually for late-night negotiations. Cigarettes are common, but I don't accept them 'cause I'm trying to get over that."

"If you don't have those but you have access to the school's database, then you could always pay using cheat sheets. That method's mostly used by the nerds and teachers' pets."

 

AJ didn't have access to any of those, and he didn't want to be caught red-handed with a case of beer or a pack of cigarretes or a sheet of cheatcodes. "Anything else? I don't wanna get in trouble."

Dean thought about it. "Well, you could always promise to do someone's homework. For how long depends on your agreement. For me, though, I take hoodies and money."

Huh. So that's why Dean seems to wear three different hoodies in one day.

"But I'm only telling you all this in case you ask for anyone's help, not just mine. Cause everyone else around here don't do something for nothing. And also, don't just owe random people because some, especially if they're jocks or the sorority girls, ask for sex in return. Sometimes, they film it and use it for blackmail so they could get you to do what they want."

AJ felt a shiver run down his spine. He thought back to what transpired in the elevator earlier. What if there  _was_ a security camera in the elevator? What if Chris only did that to blackmail him?

 

Dean nudged AJ out of his daze. "You sure you don't wanna talk about it?" The Ohioan insisted, because AJ was just acting so weird it was starting to worry him. "You know you can tell me anything, AJ. Is Jericho bothering you–"

"No!"

The sudden denial made Dean stop in his tracks. AJ walked a few steps before stopping as well, his hands clenching into fists. The brunette turned to face Dean, the former's face flushed red.

"Sorry," The older student muttered. "I didn't mean to yell at you, Dean. I just got a lot on my mind, and I don't even know what to do yet, if I can talk about it to anyone. But I promise you'd be the first to know once I got everything sorted out."

Dean studied the brunette's face for a while longer, trying to read between the lines but eventually let it go. If AJ wanted to talk, then he'd talk. Apparently, he didn't want to talk at the moment.

"Alright," Dean agreed, concern dripping from his words. "If you need anything, just lemme know. Take care of yourself, man."

"I will," AJ waved a hand goodbye as he turned right once they reached the fountain in front of the main building. "See you tomorrow."

Dean raised a hand in a sort of wave before jogging off to the left where the parking lot was.

 

* * *

 

 

AJ was thankful that he was alone in the dorm room. 

Come to think of it, AJ had rarely seen Chris since the elevator incident, aside from classes they shared of course. But even in the forced interactions, the football player seemed distant and only spoke to AJ when he needed to. AJ would fall asleep with the other bed empty, then wake up to the same scene.

Was Chris still sleeping in their dorm room?

The bullying started some time during Wednesday. A chubby kid, who AJ later learned was named Kevin Owens, threw AJ's bag into the dumpster behind the school and AJ took five hours wading waist-deep in garbage juice just to get it back. Next came the 'Push your head into your food at lunch' bit, followed by 'Dunk your head in dirty mop water' on Thursday.

And Chris was there every time, just watching the ordeal, and AJ didn't know whether or not Chris told them to do this.

 

AJ threw his bag down onto the floor before sitting on the edge of his bed to take off his shoes and placed them aside. He laid back down on his bed, feet dangling a few inches above the wooden floor and blue eyes focused on the clean white ceiling.

As much as he wanted to get started on homework, he just couldn't bring himself to move. Not without trying to answer the mystery:

Why did Chris kiss him?

 

There was a catch, that much AJ was certain. But what did he want was the question. What would Chris want from him? AJ didn't have much money, he was here because of a scholarship grant. He wasn't popular so Chris wouldn't get any additional popularity by having a fling with him. And besides, Chris was already so popular with everyone. How much more publicity did he want?

The Georgian realized there was no point in trying to solve the debate by himself. He needed to ask Chris himself. But not only did AJ not have his phone number, but even if he did, how would AJ know that what Chris would tell him was true? The jock would probably make up some dumb excuse of "I was drunk" or some shit like that to make it seem like it was an accident.

In an attempt to distract himself, AJ took his bag to take out his 3DS.

 

Only...it wasn't there.

 

Trying to keep himself from panicking, AJ searched the entire room –Even the Forbidden Zone– for the missing gadget. It was only after his third round of searching did he remember where he'd placed it.

He left it in his locker.

Muttering a few swear words under his breath, he took his dorm keys, his phone and his wallet and went out to take the long trek to the Tech Building.

 

\--

 

 _'There you are'_ , He thought to himself as he retrieved his 3DS and its charger from under his books. There were no scratches or cracks on its surface and AJ put the item in his vest's inner pocket before closing his still plain locker.

It was still early, probably around 6:10 in the evening. Dean would get started on it soon.

 

"Really? We're inviting this nerd?"

A snobbish female voice caused the brunette to turn his head to the direction of the speaker, which was a few feet to his right. 

Two girls, one of them AJ recognized as Nikki Bella and the other was probably the twin Dean had told him about. What was her name? Bea? Brie, that's it.

Now that AJ could see them side by side, he could definitely see the difference between the two: Brie's hair was all black compared to her twin's black and brown, and Nikki was a bit bustier, and wore more make up.

Nikki still wore her crop-top and booty short combo with a baseball cap on her head, while Brie's style consisted of a shirt, tight pants, a plaid shirt she wore around her waist and a headband to keep her hair back.

Aside from their faces, one wouldn't be able to tell they were twins.

 

Brie gave her twin a glance, as if scolding her sister, but quickly turned back to the new student.

"Sorry about her," Brie excused, her voice sounding soft and inviting as opposed to Nikki's cold and snobby one. "She's had a rough day. My name's Brie, and you probably already know my sister Nikki–"

"Yeah, since you've been hanging with that chatterbox Ambrose a lot." Dean was right: Nikki was a bitch.

Brie shut her up by elbowing her sister's arm. Nikki just rolled her eyes and crossed her arms like she just waited for the conversation to be over with.

The thinner twin focused back to AJ. "We're hosting a party at our house tonight," She announced with a warm smile as she handed the freshman a pink flyer, AJ accepting the piece of paper. "A sort of tradition here in WWE Academy. A lot of people will be there. And it'll be a great time for you to get acquainted with everybody, AJ."

AJ had been reading the details printed on the flyer when Brie had said his name. "You know who I am?"

Brie nodded. "I'm the one who processed your transfer papers, so yeah."

Again, Nikki decided to butt in on the conversation. "She's the head of the Student Employment committee."

"Thank you, Nikki, for that unnecessary piece of information." Brie turned back to AJ, who had proceeded to read the flyer again. "I was trying to invite you sooner but I guess our schedules just don't give us any free time, y'know?"

"Consider that flyer your invitation so don't lose it if you wanna attend." Nikki supplied a helpful comment for the first time since the discussion started. "If you need directions to our house, there's a map printed on the back. You don't need to bring beer or whatever. But y'know, it's the least you can do."

"C'mon, Nikki," Brie tapped her twin's arm. "Anyway, see you at 8, AJ."

 

Well, Brie was as nice as Dean said she'd be. But parties weren't really AJ's thing. There was just too many people and music would be too loud. And everybody would just have trouble finding their way back home, being plastered drunk and all. But the good thing about The Bella party was it was going to be held on a weekend.

AJ folded the invite and tucked it beside his 3DS and headed back to his dorm.

 

\--

 

_'Bellas havin a party. U going?' -Dean Ambrose_

 

AJ still didn't know. He wanted to go but since the party was hosted by the head cheerleader, all the jocks would probably be there. Meaning that Chris would be there too. AJ needed to talk to him, anyway, so going to the party would be a good idea.

But then again, getting Chris away from his friends long enough to have a decent conversation with him would be impossible. And no matter where they would have the discussion, someone could hear it and blab all about it.

AJ had his thumbs hovering above the screen of his phone, unsure of which message to send. Playing it safe, he decided to ask if Dean was going. Just to make sure AJ won't be alone in that jungle.

 

 _'Not sure. Wat about u?'_   _-AJ Styles_

_'Nope. busy w/ ur locker. don't wanna go anyway.' -Dean Ambrose_

_'wat about Roman?' -AJ Styles_

_'yea, he's going. He luvs a party. tell him hi 4 me. n keep him sober enough 2 count 2 10.' -Dean Ambrose_

_'u didn't answer me. r u going?' -Dean Ambrose_

 

Well, Roman was gonna be there, and Brie was turning out to be an ally. 

 

_'Yeah, I'm going.' -AJ Styles_

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Were you expecting a party chapter? HA! Well, you guessed right. But that's for the next one. And like a stereotypical Highschool AU, the party's gonna be a vital plot point so yeah.
> 
> Comments and Kudos make me motivated so feel free to leave some! And also, if you have any ideas, suggestions and questions regarding this fic (like, plot holes and trivia and junk), send them via ask on my tumblr:
> 
> crimson-of-the-earth.tumblr.com


	6. Get The Party Started

"Hi, Chris!" Brie had to shout to be heard over the loud EDM music being blared all throughout the large house. "Glad you could make it!"

"As if I'd miss the greatest party of the year!" And it was true; Chris never missed a single Bella Party in his high school life so far. Being part of the party meant being popular, and only the most well-known students were invited.

Or at least that was the case until Brie decided to invite the common folk. Which was fine. Either way, Chris and his friends were gonna have fun. 

The whole place was dimmed and tinged with flashing red and blue lights, giving the party a rave vibe to it. The carpeted floor was already littered with chips, cups and discarded shoes. There was already a couple making out in the corner near the front door, and there was a girl passed out on the stairwell.

Truly the party was in full swing.

 

Someone called Brie over, some kind of mishap from the sound of it, and the co-hostess had to excuse herself. "Just help yourself to the food! It's out in the pool area! You know where it is!" She reminded before jogging off upstairs where the call came from.

Chris did indeed know where the pool area was. Just past the dining area, then a right out on the veranda and there he was. Everyone by the pool was dressed in swimwear, either in the pool or hanging out near the snackbar. But Chris didn't come out here to swim or eat. He had to look for his boys first, make sure he wasn't the only one who came.

 

"Yo, Chris, over here!"

Kevin waved an arm to catch his attention. The group was almost complete: Cena, Owens, Del Rio, Rusev and Lesnar were there by the snackbar. Only one guy was missing.

"Reigns here yet?" Chris asked once he went up to his friends, Kevin immediately pushing a cup of beer into his hands.

Kevin shrugged his shoulders. "Don't know, actually. But I know he'd be here. He told me earlier during lunch."

"Yeah, well, where is he?"

John swallowed the food in his mouth before he spoke. Polite son of a bitch. "We don't know, but the person who we do know who's here might just make you leave early."

Chris' eyes narrowed. "Who? Summer?"

The rest of the group burst into laughter, Cena almost dropping his plate of food. Summer and Chris had been a quick fling under a dare during Chris' sophomore year. After he completed the task and was given his reward of 500 dollars from his teammates, he started to ignore her. After all, he had no reason to keep their "relationship" going. Since then, his friends never let Chris hear the end of it.

"Yes but," Rusev denied, his laughter dying down. "Look to your twelve o'clock."

Chris followed the instruction, turning around and almost felt ill.

 

"Who the fuck invited Styles to this party?" 

 

This was just unfair. He'd been deliberately trying to avoid AJ as much as he could, Chris coming back to their dorm when he was sure that his roommate would be asleep, then forcing himself to get out of bed as early as 4 AM so AJ wouldn't be able to talk to him once he wakes up. It was an exhausting feat but he had no doubt AJ would want to talk about the elevator incident.

Chris didn't have an excuse thought up yet, he wasn't even sure why he'd done it in the first place. And he wasn't ready for the confrontation just yet. AJ would surely keep pressing until Chris eventually told the truth, and Chris' reputation would go down the drain if that ever happened.

But the poor kid looked completely out of place. Sure, the party was open to all students but AJ didn't know anyone else other than Roman and that loser Ambrose. Chris almost felt sorry for him, AJ awkwardly moving aside after Brie welcomed him. The brunette sat down on one of the deck chairs on the veranda, face slightly veiled by his long bangs.

 

"Nikki told me it's Brie who gave him an invitation," Cena replied after he took a sip of his beer. "If you asked me, they shouldn't have invited him. It's like they just let him in to be made fun of." 

"Speaking of making fun of the new kid," Kevin had John hold his cup, and Chris knew by the look on his friend's face what he was thinking. "I have a plan."

Chris rolled his eyes. "Whatever. I want no part in this. I'm here to get smashed, and I'm gonna start working on that. See you guys later."

 

\--

 

"Hey, you."

 

 _'Summer',_  Chris was halfway through his second cup of beer when he felt a well-manicured finger trace the shell of his right ear then down his neck then stopped at his shoulder. Chris didn't need to talk to her to figure out what she wanted.

Ever since the disaster that was their relationship, Summer's been trying to get back together but Chris stayed away from her, avoiding her in the hallways and rushing to get out of World History class which they were both a part of.

But now, at the party, there was no excuse. He was cornered, and he had to think of something fast if he wanted to get out of her clutches.

 

"I'm so glad you came to the party," Summer said with a flirtatious tone that was not at all subtle, sitting down on the couch next to her ex-boyfriend. And yeah, she's drunk as fuck, judging by how badly her speech was slurred. "I was worried I wouldn't have any fun tonight."

She tried to wrap her arms around Chris' left one but Chris yanked his arm away before she could do so. Damn, can't this bitch take a hint?

Apparently, she can't because she settled one of her hands on Chris' left leg, dangerously close to his denim-clothed crotch. 

"Is something wrong, babe?" She pouted, drawing out the word 'babe' like that was sexy or something. Which was not. "Chris, what's wrong? I haven't seen you that often last year. Are you avoiding me?"

"Oh, you just noticed that now?" Chris snapped, standing up from his seat and turned to leave but Summer was a persistent bitch and grabbed his wrist with both hands.

 

"Chris, what did I do wrong?" That seemed to have sobered her up. "Whatever I did, I'm sorry."

Chris continued to ignore her, attempting to walk away but Summer held on, her grip was bordering on painful now. "Chris, I'm sorry. Please, don't do this to me."

The jock turned back towards her, demanding for her to let go, when Summer's hands grabbed him by the front of his varsity jacket to pull him closer for an unexpected kiss.

 

\--

 

AJ had enough of the party. He'd been there for well over two hours, keeping out of everyone's way and mostly just feeling so out of place. Roman had arrived a few minutes earlier and helped AJ feel more at ease, introducing the brunette to some of the other guests and getting them better acquainted. 

Out of all the people he was introduced to, the Georgian had become fond of Paige's company, quickly discovering that she was such a cool girl to talk to but once her friends arrived, she was whisked away and isolated from everyone else. Then Roman had to go over to his own circle of friends, promising AJ that he'd be his ride since AJ arrived via public transport.

 

Then he was alone again. He got splashed a few times in the pool area because some dudes thought it was a good idea to use the roof as a diving board, so AJ had to move out of the way but his shoes and the hem of his pants still got wet.

He kept hearing about how Chris had arrived a few minutes after he did. Although it wasn't his original plan to talk to Chris during the party, he might as well. Even if it meant getting humiliated in the process. It was better than sulking in some corner.

He'd asked Brie if she knew where Chris was, and the woman was nice enough to give him a straight answer. 

 

She had to raise her voice to be heard. The DJ was having too much fun with the music. "I think I saw him in the study! It's just past the– Never mind, just follow me! Alicia, could you hold this for a second?"

The hostess handed the tray of shots she held over to a dark-skinned woman who wore some type of animal headband, and the woman gladly accepted it. Brie then led AJ into the house where the living room was, and kept going until they made a right into the foyer then right again.

"Here it is," Brie stopped them in front of a room with huge floor to ceiling doors. "If you need anything, just come find me, alright? Have fun!"

"Thanks, Brie!" AJ called after her as she jogged away to attend to her guests. The Georgian  opened one of the two doors of the study area and pushed the door open. 

 

He was not prepared for what he saw.

 

There, amongst a sea of drunken teenagers, was Chris Jericho in liplock with a beautiful woman.

 

It didn't hurt, not at all. No, no, no. It shouldn't hurt! Why did it hurt? All sorts of questions were rattling in AJ's brain, prompting him to go over and interrupt the intimate scene. But he held himself back. 

Why should he? After all, he and Chris weren't exactly in friendly terms at the moment. In fact, Chris made it clear that he was hell-bent on making AJ's time in WWE Academy a living nightmare. Besides, the girl was obviously his girlfriend. It shouldn't have surprised him that someone as popular as Chris would already be in a relationship.

But somehow, it made AJ even more confused. What was the elevator incident really about, then? If Chris was very clearly in a relationship, why would he need to kiss AJ in the first place? Nothing made sense, and AJ felt a little light-headed.

 

"Aww, poor little redneck's jealous." A familiar snooty voice mocked, the insulting nickname only made AJ feel even more like shit. Nikki also made it a point to make AJ feel as miserable as possible. So far, she's never failed.

Before AJ could turn to go, he was surrounded by a group of women, Nikki directly in front of him with her arms crossed and a haughty look on her makeup-covered face. 

"Did you really think he was interested in you?" She insisted, and AJ tried to push past her but her friends pulled him back.

 

After that, AJ couldn't tell who was insulting him. The high-pitched voices melded together, kept spewing all these insults at him.

"Were you really delusional enough to think one of the most popular people in school would be interested in a pathetic faggot like you?"

"Oh my gosh, he actually thought Jericho liked him!

"As if Chris would ever like someone like you!"

"Fucking faggot!"

 

The girls kept pushing AJ back and forth, keeping him inside the circle whenever he tried to get away. Everyone else in the room had paid attention on the scene and laughed as the brunette was pushed onto the floor. Even Chris and his girlfriend turned to look. At that point, AJ was holding back tears.

 

"Nikki, stop it," Another girl, one with platinum-blonde hair, scolded sarcastically as she obnoxiously patted AJ's head. "The little faggot's gonna cry."

Nikki's hands covered her mouth in mock surprise. "Oh em gee, you're right, Dana," She snapped her fingers and the group went away to side with their leader. Before they left, Nikki left AJ with one final message.

"Listen, loser, Chris is over there having fun and enjoying his youth. So a piece of advice: Scamper off and do the same, and stop trying to get at his dick."

AJ's face was whipped with hair as Nikki turned to go, her friends lingering to roughly nudge AJ with the toes of their four thousand dollar heels.

 

\--

 

What Nikki did was absolutely despicable. Chris couldn't believe they were able to be that vicious. He'd seen them bully people at school but...

It was never this bad.

 

Apparently Chris himself was the reason for the attack, Nikki and her crew calling AJ horrible names and asking their victim if he actually thought Chris had liked him. So, AJ had seen– No, he got it all wrong. But no matter what his excuse was, AJ saw what he saw, and what he saw was Chris getting kissed by a girl.

It didn't matter that he and Summer weren't a thing. AJ didn't know that.

Chris couldn't remember the last time he'd felt this concerned over someone's well-being.

He had pushed Summer away, the girl laughing at AJ's misery. Chris knew he was being a hypocrite because he'd been doing the same thing since he got into the football team. But it was different this time.

For some reason he didn't know, it was different.

 

AJ had pushed himself up onto his feet, looking somewhere between crying and punching someone's face in judging by how his face was twisted into a scowl and how his fists shook with rage. It unsettled Chris to see him that way, when the only other expressions he'd seen on the brunette were care-free happiness and peaceful slumber.

Instead of sobbing or beating someone up, Styles had yanked a beer out of a random girl's hand and ignored her protests while he gulped down whatever drink the cup contained in one gulp. 

The crowd cheered him on, apparently happy that the nerdy kid was starting to lighten up and be one of them. The party resumed, and everyone kept handing AJ drinks and AJ gladly accepted each one, throwing his head back to down the unknown mix of alcohol.

 

AJ eventually left the study area, Chris having to shove the crowd away. He had the creeping feeling of dread, something was going to go wrong. The blonde lost AJ in the sea of partying people, and Chris had to go upstairs where the party extended to. Standing on the tips of his toes, he peered over the crowd in his attempt to locate the freshman.

The obstacles between him and his goal were horny lowerclassmen, rave girls and bullies with their chosen victims, but Chris ignored every single one of them. He had to find AJ. The inkling of dread growing into an unexplainable panic, and Chris found himself forcefully pushing people away in his haste to find AJ.

When he failed to find the younger man, Chris turned back to return downstairs and bumped into a solid wall of muscle when he turned back. He'd lost his balance a little, but otherwise remained upright.

"Are you alright, man?" Roman's booming voice sent a sensation of relief. Surely he'd know where AJ had gone. "I've been looking everywhere for y–"

 

Chris wildly gestured for Roman to stop. "Never mind that! Have you seen Styles?" The damn music's volume was making it harder to have a conversation, even in close range.

Roman shook his head. "I was wondering if you've seen him! I've heard about what happened with Nikki! What did you do?"

"I didn't do shit! How was I supposed to know he'd be here!? Y'know what? Whatever! I gotta go find him."

He pushed Roman aside, ignoring the puzzled look on the Samoan's face, and went back downstairs. He checked the patio, the pool area, the gardens, the front yard, everywhere, and he still couldn't find him. Shit, where is he?

Chris was passing by the dining area when he caught a glimpse of a familiar black hooded vest. He stopped in his tracks and went inside the room where a crowd of people were watching and cheering for someone as the figure got on top of the sturdy table.

 

Holy shit.

 

AJ Styles. Dancing. On top of a table.

And he wasn't a bad dancer, either. His hips swayed in time with the music, his audience obviously enjoying the impromptu show, as he appeared to not give a damn about anyone else.

For Chris, however, time seemed to screech to a halt and his vision and attention focused on the dancing brunette above him. For a moment, he'd forgotten that AJ was heavily intoxicated. 

The screeching reminder for Chris of the Georgian's lack of sobriety was the moment when AJ attempted to do a backflip, the younger man's head crashing against the chandelier above him. The brunette went limp and his performance stopped, and Chris instinctively ran forward to catch AJ just in time before the latter could tumble onto the floor.

 

"Whoops" was all AJ could mutter with a smile, boyishly giggling as Chris carried him out of the house. Man, Styles was out of it at that point. The people around them seemed to finally understand the seriousness of the situation, and made way for Chris to exit the party.

"I think you've had too much beer for tonight." He muttered as he led AJ to the sidewalk where Chris parked his car, and settled his roommate down to lean against the side of his vehicle. Once he did, AJ's breathing started to sound ragged and drawn-out and his eyes were slipping shut.

"Oh, no you don't," Chris took hold of the brunette's shoulders and shook him. "AJ, stay awake. Don't fall asleep on me now."

Another case of the giggles attacked the younger student. If this situation wasn't as serious as it was, Chris would've smiled at how adorable the sound of AJ's laughter was. A bubbly feeling was building inside Chris' chest as AJ kept laughing.

Apparently, Drunk AJ was very green-minded as he commented with a toothy grin "So you'd want me to fall asleep on you later?"

 

Damn that stupid drawl of his, which was only made thicker by the alcohol he'd consumed. Chris rolled his eyes and was about to say his retort, when AJ pushed him aside and expelled the contents of his stomach. And AJ was kind enough to not vomit anywhere close to Chris' car, the younger man bent forward by the hip with his hands on his knees.

Chris held back AJ's long hair, enjoying the soft strands between his fingers as AJ kept vomiting on the sidewalk. A number of miserable groans and sounds tore through AJ's throat.

When AJ was done, reduced to a shaking mess, Chris took out the handkerchief in his pocket to wipe away any remaining evidence of the freshman's vomit. The blonde then threw the handkerchief away, finding no use for it, and offered to drive AJ back to school.

AJ looked up at the jock, looking as if he didn't understand the words spoken to him, and Chris found himself unable to look away from those bright blue eyes. AJ looked so innocent, and Chris felt a burning hatred for the people at that fucking party.

 

"Hey," AJ's calm and soothing voice brought Chris out of his thoughts. "Your eyes have a little green in them."

Jericho didn't know what to say to that, if he should anything. Instead, he cleared his throat and repeated his earlier offer and AJ nodded this time. After helping AJ to the passenger seat and securing him with the seatbelt, Chris went to the driver's seat and inserted his key into the slot to start the car. 

 

It was one of the most calm drives Chris had ever been a part of.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Plus points to you if you can guess which movie this party chapter is based off of.
> 
> I also have no idea how cars work so yeah.
> 
> Comments and Kudos make me happy so feel free to do leave those! Questions, suggestions and ideas for future chapters for this fic can be submitted via ask on my tumblr:
> 
> crimson-of-the-earth.tumblr.com


	7. I don't Know how I feel

Chris was stuck with twice the responsibility he expected, what with having to focus on the road and keeping AJ awake. The blonde managed to keep Styles occupied by talking to him, going along with the younger man's pointless ramblings as Chris made a detour to take AJ to the hospital to get his passenger checked for concussions.

On their way there, however, AJ's bubbly laughter came back once more, this time Chris couldn't stop the smile forming across his lips. AJ's intoxicated happiness was absolutely infectious, dammit.

 

"What's so funny?" He asked, glancing at the younger student.

AJ kept laughing however, head against the headrest of his seat and his arms were wrapped around his stomach. Eventually, the giggling died down long enough for him to answer Chris' question. "Just wondering what would happen if I give a blowjob right now."

Okay, Chris was not expecting that one. Man, as innocent and virgin-like as AJ was when he's sober, he's basically a bitch in heat when he's drunk. And Chris had to focus his full attention on the road to stop that train of thought in its tracks.

 

They arrived at the hospital, finally, and AJ was taken to the emergency ward, Chris having to wait outside as AJ was examined for any concussions and other injuries. It took a long time before a doctor came out.

"Thankfully, he doesn't have a concussion whatsoever," She said with a smile, hands in the pockets of her coat. "His wooziness is just caused by intoxication. He might have a headache in the morning, though, to go with his hangover. We'll just write you a letter so he could be excused from class."

Sure enough, Chris was handed a sheet of paper by a nurse and he quickly glanced at it but was unable to read the handwriting. After a brief reminder of "Aspirin, water and plenty of rest", Chris took AJ back to the school. Well, it was too late to go back to the party anyway. The Georgian fell asleep halfway back, and Chris was glad for the silence. 

 

The real challenge was getting AJ upstairs to the second floor of the dorm house when he's basically dead weight. But Chris just settled for carrying the sleeping man up the stairs, almost tripping the first few steps up. Every other resident of the dormitory had gone to the Bella party so the house was in complete darkness.

Chris settled his roommate down to fish his keys out of his jacket pocket, unlock and open the door and turn the light on. After doing so, he hefted AJ up once more to carry the brunette to his respective bed, AJ letting out a small groan once he was put down. 

Afrer closing the door and taking off his shoes, Chris wondered what to do. This exact scene was reminiscent of the first night AJ had spent in this room, except AJ was escorted back, so it was only fair that Chris returned the gesture AJ gave him that night.

He slid off AJ's vest, setting it aside on his dresser to find later, then took off the Georgian's shoes and socks. Chris settled AJ in his blankets and was about to go to his own bed when he felt a hand tug at his jacket's left sleeve. The blonde looked down to see AJ somewhat awake, blinking the drowsiness from his sleepy blue eyes

 

"Chris...?" AJ sat up in his bed, still gripping Chris' jacket as he did so. He looked around the room, as if confused as to where he was. "Where am I?"

"At our dorm room," Chris answered as he sat down beside the younger man, making sure to keep some sort of distance because the situation was uncomfortable as hell. And also because AJ reeked of alcohol. "You remember what happened?"

"Was at the party," AJ answered, his voice a bit throaty. "Saw you and...y-you were kissing somebody. Then Nikki showed up and made fun of me, then I started drinking, I guess."

The jock confirmed the story, then added the latter details. "And I found you dancing on top of a table–"

"Oh, god." AJ covered his face with his hands. "Sorry you had to see that. And sorry you had to drive me back. You can go back to the party if you want to."

Only, Chris didn't want to go back. He had to look after AJ, sure, but even if he didn't he wouldn't leave either. Ever since the brunette's confrontation with Nikki, Chris felt the need to protect this kid, keep him away from the assholes who got him drunk in the first place. AJ didn't need that. 

But it instead of saying all of that, Chris chose to just shake his head. "Nah, it was getting boring anyway. After the first two, Bella parties get boring. Besides, I was trying to avoid someone."

"Me?"

Man, Chris would give away everything to not hear that miserable tone in AJ's voice again. "No, of course not. If I was avoiding you, why would waste my time to drive you back here when I could be partying?"

"You've been staying away from me all week," AJ reminded him, and this time he looked at Chris with those beautiful blue eyes, and they were just staring right into Chris' _soul_. "Wouldn't be a stretch to say that you'd be avoiding me at the party."

"I'm not avoiding you. Just drop it already." Chris stood up to sit on his own bed, angrily taking off his sneakers. But either AJ was still drunk or he was just really stupid to keep the conversation going.

 

"Do you honestly expect me to forget what happened in that elevator?" AJ sounded somewhat sober now, his accent returning to its normal drawl. "Because I can't and I–"

"I said drop it!"

"–just wanna know why! Why did you do it?"

Chris clenched his hands into fists, a look of warning on his face was ignored. "Fucking stop it!"

"Why me?!?

"AJ, just–"

"I thought you hate me!"

"I DID, ALRIGHT?!"

 

That seemed to have silenced the younger man, AJ staring at Chris right across the room. But Chris just couldn't, for the life of him, meet AJ's eyes. He said he'd deal with this conversation once it came, but he never expected it to arrive this soon and Chris was caught off-guard.

He wanted to avoid this conversation, he really did, but it was here now and there was no escaping it.

"I thought I hated you," He confessed, looking anywhere except at AJ.

"I thought I could hate you. I didn't know what happened, what you did, but everything I ever thought about you started to change so fast, I couldn't keep up. I didn't know what was happening, or how I could deal with it. So did I forget about kissing you in that elevator? No, of course not. And you wanna know why I can't forget?"

Chris faintly heard the hitch in AJ's breathing.

"Because kissing you is one of the best things I've ever felt. I don't know why, but seeing you makes me happy. And it scares me. Because I could have my pick of every girl in this school but I'd pick you over them every time."

 

AJ was still quiet, which was driving Chris crazy. Why won't he say something? He was about to lay back down on his bed, no point in continuing the conversation, when AJ walked up to him. Chris looked up just in time as AJ bent forward to kiss his forehead. The slight pressure made Chris' heart skip a beat, like he was in one of those romance movies the girls liked to watch. It was a nice feeling, and it's been a long time since someone made him feel the way AJ did.

"You need to sleep" was what AJ advised him, cupping Chris' face with both hands. "We'll talk about this in the morning."

Chris nodded, speechless because AJ's eyes seem bluer than they usually were. They were beautiful. The jock turn to lay down in his bed and surprisingly, AJ joined him, wrapping them both in the warm covers.

It didn't matter that the lights were still on. Chris had never felt the kind of peace he had with AJ.

 

* * *

 

_[Two days later...]_

 

"So, what do you think?"

 

AJ didn't know what to think. His locker was absolutely beautiful, more than he could ever imagine. Sure enough, there was a sudden flash of light somewhere to his left, and he turned his head to see Dean waving a Polaroid photo to dry.

 

AJ was still not feeling right after the events of the the other night, and he certainly wasn't prepared to handle all the staring and whispering from the other students. But he'd already postponed the reveal, and AJ was just too excited.

Chris was gone when AJ woke up, but that was normal. Chris was a football player, after all.

 

Anyway, he was examining Dean's work on his locker.

The locker itself was colored a gorgeous blend of black and blues, speckled with white to make it seem galactic, and the logo and other details were clearly written on their respective places. AJ reached out to touch it, the paint dry to the touch as if it had been left to dry for a week.

Dean did an excellent job.

 

"It's..." The brunette started, turning towards his friend with the happiest look on his face. "It's–"

"Phenomenal?" Dean supplied with a smile of his own. "Glad you like it. I actually messed up the first coat but hopefully, it's not noticeable. Now all it needs is a little interior decorating, which you have to do."

AJ couldn't thank Dean enough. But instead of rambling his gratitude on and on, AJ took twenty bucks from his pocket and offered it to Dean, who looked shocked by the gesture.

"I know you said this is free of charge," The brunette explained. "But it's unfair if I don't pay up. I mean, I can only imagine how expensive the materials are, not to mention you had to camp out here just to do it. And you managed to finish it overnight. So c'mon, just take it."

Dean shook his head. "Nah, man, I can't–"

"Ambrose, just take it."

 

Reluctantly, Dean took the money and stuffed it in his pocket. "Well, thanks, man. I appreciate it but y'know, I would've been okay with a hoodie."

"Well, I don't have hoodies to give away."

The bell then rang for third period and they went to their respective class, the two promising to meet up with Roman for lunch as usual. But first, AJ went to the washroom to empty his bladder. He then washed his hands after doing so, and was jolted back when he saw Chris behind him in his reflection in the mirror.

"Careful," Chris said with a playful smile. Ever since their talk the other night, Chris had been more confident with showing AJ his affection; Waking AJ up with a kiss that morning, hugging him from behind as the brunette was getting dressed and hugging him again before they went out of their dorm room.

"What, a bad hangover not enough for you, Styles?"

AJ turned to look at the jock, the blonde wearing the iconic white and red jacket on top of a plain black shirt. "Well, if it means you taking care of me again, then, yeah."

Chris' smirk almost melted the younger man, and it was a wonder how AJ managed to keep his knees from turning to Jello. "Oh, if you wanted me to take care of you, all you had to do was ask."

"I'll remember that. Have you seen my locker yet?" AJ excitedly asked, because he was so damn happy about it.

"Yeah, I actually saw it while I was heading to Geology class. Pretty cool. And 'phenomenal'? Really?"

AJ shrugged. "Childhood thing. Anyway, I'm probably late for class. I'll see you later."

 

Before AJ could go, however, Chris held him by the wrist and pulled him back for a quick kiss. So quick in fact, that AJ didn't even realize what Chris had done until the latter pulled away and the faint taste of spearmint lingered in AJ's mouth.

"See you later." Chris then walked out of the washroom, a renewed pep in his step, once again leaving AJ in somewhat of a daze.

 

Well, shit. How was AJ supposed to focus in class after that?

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I know this chapter is a bit shorter compared to the other ones but I hope it's alright. 
> 
> So yeah, it looks like AJ and Chris finally made up. And made out. ( ͡° ͜ʖ ͡°) 
> 
> Comments and kudos are always nice, so feel free to leave some if you enjoyed it.
> 
> Questions, suggestions and ideas for this fic can be sent via ask on my tumblr:
> 
> crimson-of-the-earth.tumblr.com


	8. The Real You

"What's up with you, man?" Kevin nudged at Chris with his shoulder, effectively getting the blonde's attention. "You've been really...I don't know..."

"Happy," Cena finished before taking a bite out of his burger.

 

It was lunch time for the students at WWE Academy, and the cafeteria was buzzing with the usual things: The nerds getting a face full of whatever special the kitchen was serving, the sorority girls were at their table talking about make-up and boys, and everybody else minded their own business. 

Usually, Chris hated to eat at the cafeteria, finding its chaotic environment a bit too irritating for his liking. But it seemed that that day's bustle didn't have its usual effect on the blonde, and he'd made the decision to actually eat there with his friends.

Another reason was…Well, he was waiting for a text from someone.

 

Chris shrugged his shoulders, popping another French fry into his mouth. Did he seem happier? He wasn't sure, but being happy wasn't bad, right? "Have I?" He asked, unable to keep himself from smiling. 

"Yeah, you are," Kevin replied not-so-politely. Typical Kevin, really. "You've been looking like you've just fucked some great pussy or something-"

"People are eating over here, Kev." Del Rio protested but Kevin ignored him.

"Don't care. Anyway, you've been going to the club down town again? Lots of good-looking girls there."

While it was true that Chris had visited the aforementioned club a few times before, he hasn't recently done so. And the girls there were attractive, yes, but none of them really fit Chris' tastes. 

The blonde shook his head. "Can't a guy be happy without any fucking involved?"

 

A few 'Ooh's went around the lunch table, the select girls whispering amongst themselves before giggling. "What? What did I say?"

Lesnar suddenly clapped Chris on the shoulder, knocking the wind right out of the Canadian. "So who's the unlucky girl this time, Jericho?"

"What?" The awkward cracking of his voice only seemed to cement the rest of the group's theory. He cleared his throat, throwing a French fry at Kevin who nearly fell out of his chair laughing. "I have no idea what you're talking about."

Kevin recovered from his laughing fit. "Nah, Chris. Do you really think we're that dumb? Don't answer that, by the way."

Only Cena stayed out of the impromptu interrogation, choosing to just finish his lunch and spectate the scene. It was his girlfriend who asked the question, though. "But real talk, Chris. Who is it?"

"No one! Just drop it already! I don't have a girlfriend, alright?"

"Alright, guys," Del Rio raised his hands to quiet them down. "You know what that means."

"I bet five bucks that he's back together with Summer." Kevin whipped out his wallet, took out a five-dollar bill and slammed it on the table, Alberto quickly collecting the money.

 _'Not the betting thing again.'_ Their group has been doing the betting game ever since they were all freshman, and they haven't stopped the practice since. It was almost tradition, in a way, the group convincing new members to participate at least once.

Chris' face twisted with disgust as he listened to the rest of the bets his friends have placed.

 

"Twenty says it's Bliss."

"I'm betting forty bucks on Renee."

"Ten on Charlotte!"

"You're all wasting your money. It's obviously, that Lynch kid." 

After everybody placed their bets, the total money to be won gathered up to 200 dollars, the lucky winner was obviously going to have fun with that kind of money. Nikki took the responsibility of keeping the funds until the winner claimed it, the cheerleader rolling up the wad of dollars and placed it in her bra.

Chris was about to comment on the flirty action when his phone vibrated in his pocket. Cautiously, he looked to his group and only opened the text message he received when he was sure that he wouldn't be eavesdropped on.

He probably shouldn't have smiled, no doubt it was only reinforcing everyone's hunch of Chris' apparent girlfriend. But no one could blame him. A text from AJ was always nice.

 

_'I'm @ the parking lot. Now what?' -Bae-J_

Chris quickly typed in his reply. _'Just w8 4 me there. Giv me 2 mins.' -Y2J_

_'I'm supposed 2 b doing homework. U better hurry up.' -Bae-J_

 

Chris tucked his phone back his jacket pocket, and scooped up his bagpack from under the table. "Hey, guys. I gotta go somewhere. Promised a friend I'd buy them some stuff."

"More like 'I'm gonna buy my girlfriend jewelry so she'd suck my dick later'." Nikki commented, playing with what was left of her strawberry parfait. The others in the group burst into laughter, Chris rolling his eyes and walked out of the cafeteria are.

 _Whatever_ , Chris thought to himself as he went out of the main building. _They can think that I'm dating a chick all they want. It'll be easier to get them off my back._

 

* * *

 

"I was starting to think you weren't coming."

 

AJ had apparently been waiting for him for half an hour in the school east parking lot, seated on one of the stone benches opposite of parked cars though the brunette stood up once he saw Chris approaching.

Chris shot him a smirk. "You kidding? Cafeteria's a fucking jungle right now. And the food's not that good."

The two of them kept talking as Chris led AJ to his cart, and the blonde didn't need to turn around to know that AJ was warily looking at the vehicle.

Chris knew his red pickup was a bit banged up; the red paint was a bit faded and chipped in some areas, and the windshield had little cracks from being stoned often.

But he was proud of it, worked unbelievable hours into the night until he earned enough money to buy it, even if it is used. It's his first car and each dent and scratch and crack was memorable.

 

After getting in and buckling up, AJ asked him the expected question. "Where are we going?"

"Just somewhere around town," Chris answered as he inserted the key into its slot and started the car. "Wanted to show you something."

"Cryptic. I'm one minute away from calling the police."

The jock pulled out of the parking lot before glancing at AJ, relieved to see that the younger man wasn't serious about calling the police. Chris had no bad intentions, but he wasn't planning to just drive around town either.

 

* * *

 

They drove around for what seemed like forever, Chris showing AJ the nice places in town to hang out in. AJ listened attentively, seeming to love the old town library and video game store especially so of course they made a stop there.

It was two hours before AJ had to go back to campus for class, so Chris interrupted AJ's child-like stroll around the shelves of video games to tell him they needed to go. Reluctantly, the brunette left but not without promising to visit the store next time.

Chris drove them a little ways outside of town, reassuring AJ that they weren't going too far away, and came to a stop at a run down nature park.The jock parked his truck just in front of the park's entrance. The two men got out of the vehicle but AJ on the other hand lingered outside as Chris already trudged ahead.

Turning back, Jericho took hold of his companion's hand, and immediately felt AJ's anxiety lessen. "Don't worry," The upperclassman urged as he tugged AJ along. "I'm not gonna do anything bad, I promise."

Eventually, AJ trusted Chris enough to walk with him into the park, refusing to stray away from Chris' side. Rust and dirt were the only inhabitants of the place, the ominous creaking of open animal cages and forgotten swingsets gave the area a chilling vibe.

They walked for what felt like hours until Chris led them to the lakeside, gazebos and platforms scattered around for events and other functions. Chris and AJ sat down on the grass, dirt and soil be damned. 

 

AJ took a guess. "So this is where you disappear to during classes?" 

"Among other places," Chris answered as he dug into his bagpack to pull out a vintage Polaroid camera. AJ didn't know those still existed. "I don't really like noises, 'cept when it's football, y'know? I never really got used to it."

AJ was still stuck trying to get his head around this place being one of Chris' safe havens, and briefly wondered if the others were this serene and quiet. It was a bit of a shock to think a jock like Chris would be hanging out in a place like this, but there they were in each other's company and away from the hierarchy and stereotypes of their school.

It occurred to the younger man that maybe that's the reason why Chris liked to be here, usually by his lonesome and away from everyone else. Here, Chris was allowed to express himself and be away from WWEA's labels and judgements.

 

A quick flash and click of a camera, and AJ was taken out of his thoughts. He didn't realize how silent he must have been and that he was staring out into the lake. He looked beside him, Chris was already shaking a photo dry, and AJ had to lean closer to see the image.

Sure enough, Chris had taken a photo of the freshman, looking so lost in thought and the lighting was perfect. AJ glanced at Chris, who kept examining the photo as he tried to hide the deep blush on his face behind the collar of his jacket. A look of pride and contentment were noticeable in his features and a small smile spread across his lips.

AJ realized this was the first time he'd seen Chris genuinely smile. Then he realized this...this was Chris Jericho without his façade.

 

And AJ briefly wondered if he'd ever see Chris like this again.

 

"What do you think?" Chris turned the photo towards the brunette, that smile still on his face as if he was waiting for AJ's approval. 

AJ pretended to further inspect the photo, but he didn't know a thing about photography so he really didn't see anything wrong with the picture.

"It's great," Chris' blue eyes became a bit brighter as expected, and AJ watched the blonde put the photo in his bag. "How long have you had that camera, by the way?"

Said camera was settled on the grass between the two men's legs. "Mom gave it to me as a gift a long time ago," Chris replied, his previously happy emotion replaced to that of grief. "I don't really remember."

The silence after that prompted AJ to switch to a new, less-touchy topic. "So why'd you bring me here anyway?" Even though AJ had a vague idea why. "How'd you even find this place?"

"The guys and I were goofing around this area a few years back and we just went in when we saw it. They didn't really like it, but I kept going back here 'cause the front usually scares people off so I know I'll be left alone when I need it," Chris picked at the lose thread at his pants to have something to do with his hands. 

"And I brought you here 'cause I wanted to. You asked me in our dorm where I go to when I'm gone. So if you ever need to find me, you'd probably wanna search here first because more often than not, I'll be here."

AJ nodded, though he had a gut feeling that maybe Chris brought him here for other reasons. But he decided against speaking out those feelings; if Chris wanted to tell him, he would.

 

They stayed there for a few more minutes, just talking and goofing around. Chris was taking photos all the while, most of them candid ones of AJ, and he's stash each and every one of it in his bag. 

If it were other people, AJ would've gotten annoyed by it. But from what he's seen of Chris' photos in their dorm, AJ made the observation that the photos were all of memorable moments. 

But what they were doing was not all that memorable, it was just two people playing around at a lakeside. Chris has probably brought his girlfriend here multiple times as well.

The last thought stopped AJ in his tracks, as he and Chris were headed back to the entrance of the park. 

How could he had forgotten that Chris was already in a relationship? Was AJ really that desperate for attention that he would seek it from a committed man? He was in this situation so yes, he probably was.

 

Chris noticed that AJ had stopped, the younger man looking down at his feet, his brown hair shielding his eyes from Chris' view. He walked over to the Georgian. "Everything okay?"

That was a stupid question. Of course, everything's not okay. But Chris needed to tread lightly, or else this trip might end unnecessarily bitter.

AJ merely answered with a nod, not saying a word as the freshman walked past him to hurry to the pickup. Chris followed after him but kept a fair distance away. AJ was obviously ticked off by something, and no doubt Chris was one of the reasons why.

The drive back to school was awful. Neither of them talked and the air around them was just tense. Chris tried to break the stillness by asking AJ a few questions, but was only given short and reserved answers, almost biting in a way.

 

Chris dropped AJ off at school, giving him the excuse of having to run a few errands, and AJ didn't question him. Instead, the brunette just muttered a quick "It's fine. Don't worry about it" and walked back into campus and not once spared Chris a second glance.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So sorry for the delay. I just started college this week and I just didn't have the time to sit down and update but
> 
> Here it is! I really hope this is worth the wait. As always, comments and kudos are welcome and questions and suggestions/ideas for the fic can be submitted through asks on my Tumblr.
> 
> Enjoy!


	9. What Happened to Us?

_[Three days later: Saturday. 4:30 PM]_

 

For the past three days, the air between them dropped to nothing but a tensed chill. None of them having the courage to break the uncomfortable silence that has made the space between them its home, none of them willing to shatter the stillness. 

So both the students minded their own business: Chris going out to parties and football practice and overall being a typical jock doing jock-y things; meanwhile AJ kept to himself and stayed out of Chris' way, leaving the dorm whenever Chris got home early and answering with reserved replies when asked questions.

AJ made it seem like nothing was wrong, like everything was normal, but it was absolutely unbearable for Jericho. He can handle silence, he can handle being given the cold shoulder, but what he can't handle was being ignored when he wasn't made aware of what he did wrong. And it pained him to equate AJ to all the other girls the blonde's dated: 

Self-centered and confusing.

There was just something so wrong about describing AJ in such a way, because Chris had thought for sure AJ would be different, that AJ would act different. But Chris was quickly concluding that the sweet and innocent peach from Georgia wasn't as sweet as he thought he was.

But Chris didn't want to think of him like that. He'd tried to think of something, anything that would make everything the way it was, but AJ wouldn't let him get close enough to remedy the situation. From avoiding Chris in the hallways to outright ignoring him in their dorm room, Styles had made certain to never cross paths with Chris for too long, like he'd burst into flames if he didn't.

This...this was just torture, and AJ wasn't even doing a single thing. But maybe that was what made it torturous; AJ wasn't doing or saying anything, just being there and acting like he and Chris didn't share something, like Chris didn't even exist.

 

It was during practice when it all broke down.

 

The team was in the middle of their warm-ups when it started to rain, the players immediately scrambling to the bleachers where their bags were placed (Seriously? The sky had been gray since that morning, they knew it was gonna rain, but they still kept their bags in the open?) and rushed to get under somewhere dry.

Which the bleachers also proved useful for.

The team, along with Coach Gunn, huddled under one of the bleachers as the first strikes of lightning and booms of thunder started to make their symphony. The others had their jackets wrapped around their bodies for warmth while the rest of them were digging through their bags to see if anyone brought an umbrella, Chris didn't bother checking his since he knew he didn't bring anything to shield himself from the rain.

Well, except for his jacket, but there was no way he was going to risk getting it drenched.

So amongst the group of panicking teenagers, Chris leaned against one of the bleacher's posts and just watched the mayhem unfold. Nikki started to freak out because her "1500-dollar shoes weren't supposed to get wet" and Alicia was busy trying to fix her eyeliner, which already ran down past her cheeks. It was pretty funny to watch, especially in an unexpected punch from Misfortune. Which was why he was surprised to hear his phone ring from inside his bag.

 

Thank goodness he hadn't assigned any embarrassing tones for his contacts yet so it was just a generic ringtone at the moment. But of course, it made it even more difficult to figure out who it is. He quickly dug out the ringing device, ignoring the scolding looks from his teammates at the obnoxious sound, and checked the caller ID.

He saw the image first before the name listed.

The name ' _Bae-J'_  was proudly displayed, along with the first digital selfie they took while on their way to the abandoned park. Nothing special; just AJ holding the phone while Chris was right behind him, chin resting on the brunette's right shoulder, and both of them looking into the camera with big smiles.

 

Chris had been so caught up with reminiscing about what happened that day that he hadn't realized AJ had hung up, and Chris had never felt more anxious in his life. Shit, what if that was important? What if Styles was in trouble? What if–

His thoughts were taking a dark turn, and Chris couldn't be more grateful when his phone started to ring for an incoming call once again. But this time, it was from an unknown number. Chris stared down at his phone, trying to figure out whose number it was, but just decided to just answer the damn call to get it over with.

 

"Hello?"

"You're a complete dick, you have to know that, right?" That voice, Chris knew that voice all too fucking well.

"What do you want, Ambrose? And how the fuck did you get my number?"

Chris didn't need to see him to know that the bastard was wickedly smiling from the other end of the line. "Whoa, one question at a time, chief. Anyways, AJ called–" A lump the size of a fist seemed to have taken refuge in Chris' throat, and suddenly it was a bit harder to breath.

"–and he wanted me to tell ya to answer your phone for him. And ya better hurry up. He said he's freezing his balls out there."

"Wait, what?" Chris said that out loud, didn't he? Dammit, dammit all to hell. The rest of the team was preoccupied, and it wasn't like this conversation was suspicious anyway (Assuming someone could hear it over the sound of the hard rain) so Chris peeked out from under the bleachers, and looked out onto the field.

There was no one there, but more like there was someone under the trees across the field opposite of where Chris was. A hooded figure holding an umbrella and had an arm around their waist, as if to keep warm.

Chris knew, just knew, that it was AJ. It had to be.

 

The jock had hung up his unimportant call, placed his phone back in his bag and gathered his things before charging out from under the bleacher and across the field, getting soaked to the fucking bone, to reach the other man. AJ immediately held out his umbrella to keep Chris from getting any more wet. Though, the blonde's bag was still relatively dry and his jacket was just mildly drenched from where its owner haphazardly tucked it under an arm.

As Chris caught his breath, more surprised that AJ was there more than anything else, Styles kept silent. The rain providing the perfect translucent curtain between them and the people across the field. When Jericho gripped AJ's free arm, he'd realized that, for once, Ambrose hadn't been talking shit: AJ was freezing cold to touch and if the brunette wasn't standing at that moment, no one could be blamed to think he was dead.

 

"Thanks," Chris breathed out, not minding the cold temperature of AJ's skin. "How long have you been here?"

"A while," AJ answered as he and Chris walked out to the main grounds, Chris letting go of the brunette's arm. "I knew you didn't have an umbrella so I thought I'd be here in case you need one."

Yet another case of AJ looking out for Chris. It spread a warm feeling across Chris' chest to think that AJ still helped him out even when he didn't have to. Chris was hoping that they'd talk a bit more, but AJ's facial expression sent a message:

_Don't talk to me._

So Chris had no choice but to keep silent and maintain a fair amount of distance from the younger man while still being under the umbrella. There was the nerve-wracking tension again, and it took nearly all of Chris' self-control to keep his mouth shut. 

The walk from the football field back to the Boys' dormitory was a short one but it might as well have been a mile-long. The silence of it all was frustrating, Chris wanted to say something, had to say something. This may be the only chance he'll get AJ alone, what with a big game coming up the next week. No doubt Chris would never get this chance again.

 

He only realized that they've arrived at their destination when AJ snapped fingers in front of Chris' face to successfully catch the older student's attention. 

AJ had already unlocked and opened the door of their dorm room, and was gesturing for Chris to get inside, which the blonde obeyed. AJ went in after him, shutting the door behind them, and placed the folded umbrella in the corner of the room.

"You better get out of those clothes," AJ had said it so casually, and Chris only managed to convince himself that AJ probably didn't mean it the way Chris was thinking. "Big game's coming up. Wouldn't want you to get sick now."

"AJ, can we talk?" God, Chris hated sounding desperate. But if it meant finally talking to AJ, then so be it. Hopefully, AJ would finally stop trying to shrug Chris off.

 

But Chris should have known that it wouldn't be that easy.

AJ just sat on his own bed, completely avoiding to make eye contact with the blonde. "You might wanna take a hot shower, too. Keep yourself warm."

"In a minute. But now, can we just–"

"In a minute, you'll get sick, Jericho."

"Can you just–"

"Chris, just do what I tell you."

"For fuck's sake, can you just look at me?!"

Chris didn't think that AJ would actually do as he said. So when those beautiful baby blues focused on him, Chris had forgotten what he was talking about for a moment. His throat was suddenly so dry, and it took a great effort to even get his voice out.

But AJ decided to talk for him. "Take a shower, then we'll talk."

The way the Georgian said it left no room for discussion, an air of authority Chris never knew AJ had was laced in his command, and Chris had no choice but to gather a change of clothes, his towel and keys and go to the showers at the end of the hall.

 

* * *

 

 

"So do you really wanna talk, or are you just gonna ignore me again?"

 

Chris was drying his hair with a hand towel as he sat down on his bed, fresh shirt and sweatpants replacing the drenched shirt and pants he was wearing earlier. He was facing the younger man at the opposite end of the room. AJ was reading something on his phone, acting like Chris wasn't even there. 

Well, there was the answer to the blonde's question. 

He'd never expected that AJ would be this stubborn, this selfish, and Chris threw aside the hand towel in his frustration. He'd had enough. This wasn't going to work. If AJ didn't want to talk, there was no convincing him. 

Chris laid back down on his bed, settling to just sleep the anger off, turning his back towards the younger man. 

"Don't be such a drama queen, Chris." AJ snapped, and Chris sat up in his bed to look at the younger man. Rather than looking angry like Chris had expected, AJ just appeared to be tired, and Chris only noticed then the dark circles under Styles' eyes.

 

"Oh, I'm the drama queen?" Chris clenched his hands into tight fists, trying to keep his tone as calm as he could but failed. "I'm the drama queen when you were too fucking proud to tell me what I did wrong before you–"

"You didn't do anything wrong." AJ answered with defeat, his head covered by his hands. And for a moment Chris stilled, suddenly at a loss for words for the first time in his life, but quickly recovered.

In hindsight, he should've let it go.

"Then why are you acting like I don't even exist?! If it's about the trip a few days ago, then I'm sorry. I was trying to show you a good time! But apparently, we have different ideas of having a good time!"

Chris ran a hand across his face, for what he didn't know, as he got up off his bed. He had a quick change of clothes, but continued his rant as he laced up his sneakers.

"Well, you don't need to worry about me giving a shit about you anymore, Styles! You don't need to worry about me treating you like a fucking human being! And you damn sure don't need to worry about me trying to figure out what your fucking malfunction is because I'm sick of this!"

"I thought you would be different!" The blonde went on, and AJ's visibly flinched but Chris either didn't see it or chose to ignore it. Chris couldn't hear the utter heartbreak in his own voice as he glared down at the Georgian, who still refused to look at him.

"I really thought you would be different! But you turned out to be just like everybody else!"

AJ was silent, the way his shoulders hitched in quick movements and his quiet hiccups went unnoticed by the blonde, as Chris angrily placed his keys, wallet and phone in the pockets of his pants and donned on his varsity jacket before heading out the door, letting it close with a thunderous 'BANG!'

With a door between him and the younger man, Chris allowed himself to take several deep breaths to compose himself. He wanted to scream, to feel something break under his hands, but somehow he did neither. He proceeded to trudge to the parking lot and to his car to drive around town.

As he did, only one thought kept repeating in his mind:

 

_Right where we started._

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I've hidden a Jon Moxley Easter egg here so if you can guess it, congrats!
> 
> This is actually the first chapter that was not based on any HS movie I've based the previous ones on. I'm actually pretty proud of it. So I hope you like it too.
> 
> So we finally have an actual conflict, which is not going to be solved in one chapter because let's face it: Teenage high school drama is not that simple.
> 
> Comments and Kudos give me life! XD So feel free to leave some! And you should know by now, question and suggestions/ideas for this fic can be sent via Asks on my tumblr.


	10. Polaroids pt. 1

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I don't usually put a top note thingy here but this is just a heads-up to remind you guys that this is set in a high school setting, and we all know that high school is a dramatic time for everybody.
> 
> This chapter will contain a lot of mature topics like depression, bullying, self-hatred and self-harm; All of which are completely possible to happen and had happened in high school when I attended. Everything about this chapter and probably onwards will be based on things I've witnessed and/or personally experienced in my time as a high school student.
> 
> If you ignored the tags above, this is the last warning: You might wanna sit this one out if you are uncomfortable with the themes. In fact, I advise it if you have PTSD or whatever or just don't feel comfortable with it. Don't worry; There's nothing wrong with skipping a chapter if it irks you in any way.
> 
> So with all that said but you're still here: I hope you enjoy! 
> 
>  
> 
> And tread lightly.

_[One month later: September 14th, Friday]_

 

"Mister Styles!"

AJ immediately raised his head, Mister Regal's booming voice jolting him out of his apparent daze. The teacher, as well as the rest of the class, was focused on the brunette seated at the back of the room. In hindsight, that should have been a cause for worry considering AJ had a hard time reading what was on the board, therefore usually choosing to sit somewhere in the middle row.

 

Come to think of it, there has been a drastic change in AJ's attitude in the past month, both inside and outside his class according to Dean and AJ's other teachers. Compared to the enthusiastic and study-bound AJ Styles during the start of the school year, the one now was such a cold and disappointing transition. AJ used to participate every chance he got, ranking in the top 5 in a majority of his classes, and passed every assignment and project in time and received impressively high scores.

But as August went by, the young man's behavior and willingness to learn started to decline and he no longer participated in class and school activities like he used to. It came as a depressing topic for Regal to discuss with AJ's teachers as they tried to talk about what could be done to save AJ's grades.

They've talked to the boy countless times, referred him for counseling and psychiatric evaluation to their school counselor, and even resorted to calling AJ's parents to inform them of their son's poor transition of performance in classes. AJ was dangerously close to getting kicked out of WWE Academy, what with his grades going from A's to D-'s in a span of a month, and if he didn't start showing any improvement soon, –Or cooperating with the counselor so he can be given possibly needed psychiatric help– he will have to find another school.

AJ merely nodded his head whenever he was stopped by his teachers on his way out after class, but didn't seem to be improving significantly.

 

 

The Georgian didn't even look mildly sorry for not listening to the class, instead sporting an indifferent expression on his face. Like he was just daring for Regal to give him detention. But William just decided to repeat his question.

"Mister Styles, it would do you good if you would listen to discussions," No reaction from the boy. "Can you give us an example of one of Shakespeare's works?"

It came as a shock when AJ just shook his head and answered in a low voice "I'm sorry, sir. I don't know." 

Mister Regal just nodded, and moved on with his class after scolding AJ for not listening yet again. The class went on normally, everyone ignoring the moody brunette in the back, until the bell rang for second period. AJ stood up from his chair, placed his unused notebook and pen back in his bag and headed for the exit.

"AJ?" William called after him as the older man erased the writings on the whiteboard. Once he was done, he turned back to place his students' papers in a neat pile on his desk.

AJ took a deep breath. "Yes, Mister Regal?"

"May I have a word with you for a moment?"

 

The student didn't have a choice but to come back inside and take a seat in front of his instructor's desk. He nervously tugged at the sleeves of his jacket in tiny increments, as if making it so that his teacher wouldn't notice. After a while, Mister Regal finally took off his glasses and sat on his chair.

"AJ, I would think that you'd get tired of this scenario," William's tone showcased concern, which made AJ feel a little worse about himself. "Considering that your other teachers are telling me that this is a repeated occurrence for you." Still, AJ remained quiet and waited for William to get to the point so he could leave.

And get to the point, William did. 

"We are just concerned and frankly a little alarmed of your sudden shift in behavior. This is not the AJ Styles I and other faculty members and students have grown accustomed to. Even your friends have noticed that you've changed," Finally, a reaction: A small, seemingly unimportant twitch in AJ's left eye. "Dean has told me that you've been...isolating yourself from other students. Is that correct?"

 

For a while, AJ didn't react, just sat there in his seat with his head hung low and his fingers fiddling with his sleeves. But after a few more seconds, AJ slowly nodded. For once since AJ's behavioral change, he'd responded to questions. But William knew it was far from over, so he continued his interrogation.

"Can you tell me why you've done so? There's something or someone troubling you, perhaps?" This time, a reluctant denial in the form of shaking his head was the student's answer. "AJ, if you do not tell anyone what's bothering you, it won't help you or your grades. It would be a shame for a student of your intelligence."

Silence from the boy. There was still so much left to find out, but unfortunately Regal had a class in fifteen minutes and couldn't ask any further questions.

"Well, should you need someone to talk to, your teachers and I are here," The teacher reminded as he stood up, his student doing the same. "As well as Miss Bayley in the Guidance unit. As for now, you may go."

AJ hurriedly slung his bagpack over his shoulder, and it happened almost instantly but William managed to catch it. And it was good that he did, because AJ immediately walked out of the room.

As AJ had slung his bag, the right sleeve of his jacket was pulled up slightly. The marks stood out even on Styles' slightly tanned skin.

 

Angry, red scars criss-crossing along AJ's forearm.

 

* * *

 

 

Chris wasn't at Literature class.

 

Of course he wasn't. AJ didn't understand why it was so hard for him to remember that Chris had apparently filed to switch classes, making it so AJ almost never saw him throughout the week. It was as if Jericho had known AJ's schedule so he could fix his to contrast the younger student's.

AJ had returned to his dorm, not caring about his remaining four subjects that day, and threw his bag onto the floor at the foot of his dresser. He toed off his shoes before sitting on his bed, keeping his head down so he wouldn't have to look at the empty bed across the room. The space that had been so unused, it may as well have been vacant to begin with.

 

Ever since he and Chris had their altercation a month ago, AJ had never seen his dorm mate occupy his respective space. Whether or not its owner also filed for a Dorm Transfer –Which was not allowed, according to April– AJ didn't know.

What if Chris had rented a boarding house outside of campus? But that wouldn't make sense since the blonde's belongings were still in his side of the dorm.

Regardless of whether or not Chris made use of it, AJ made sure to keep the space clean and as chaotically organized as Chris always seemed to keep it. Another reason why AJ cleaned Chris' side of the room was because he would always find the most interesting stuff, trinkets that told AJ stories Chris would never tell him himself.

 

He was cleaning under Chris' bed when he stumbled upon boxes of old items: Old photos of Chris' past high school endeavors, rolled up posters, extra clothes, junk like that. Not really surprising.

But the box containing the Polaroids was an interesting find. Photos of Chris' old friends, his first locker design, first practice with the football team. The deeper AJ had dug through the box, the more personal the photos became.

One photo was of Chris' parents, his childhood home, his first guitar, first car. AJ had reached the bottom of the box and found a handful of photos that seemed to be of himself, some of them seemed to have been taken before their trip to the old park.

There was one picture of AJ at the football field with Dean, the caption at the space under it read ' **???** ' written in black marker. There was more writing at the back, which was just the date when the photo was taken. The particular photo AJ held was captured during the first day of school.

The next photos were random ones; AJ hanging out with Dean and Roman, AJ sitting alone at the Bella party –which was captioned as ' **Sorry I couldn't help** '– and the last of the candid photos was AJ sitting at the parking lot, the date at the back indicating that it was taken the day they went to the park and had the caption ' **Feeling nervous?** '

The next ones were all of him and Chris at the park, but most of them were still of AJ; AJ goofing around at the lakeside, him dangling upside down at a tree branch, him doubled over laughing at a forgotten joke. There seemed to be a recurring theme in these photos: AJ's happiness. All of these photos were of AJ either smiling, laughing or just being silly. 

AJ held on to one of the photos, the one of him staring out at the lake. It was the first photo Chris captured during their time there, and it was the only one out of the bunch that had a caption: ' **Just Phenomenal** ' 

After that, there was nothing left in the box. Which was weird, because AJ was sure Chris had more photos of their trip. Where was their selfie? The one of AJ strolling around the video game store? Then, the crushing reality felt like a punch to the stomach.

What if Chris threw them away? Burned them, perhaps? Maybe he kept the photos of AJ at the bottom because he never wanted to see them again?

 

"AJ?" AJ dropped the photo in his hands, startled by the calling of his name. He quickly turned his head, shocked and scared to find Chris standing a few feet away from him.

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I know this is a short update but the original was too long so I decided to split it into two. So this is part one of 'Polaroids' and the next part will be its continuation rather than a new chapter.
> 
> So yeah, Chris has a collection of photos of AJ, which is either creepy or sweet depending on how you look at it.
> 
> Comments and kudos are very appreciated! And as always, any feedback, questions, suggestions or ideas can be sent to my tumblr via ask.


	11. Polaroids pt. 2

Chris had heard all about it.

 

AJ's drop in class activity was truly a shame, and Chris couldn't stop the guilt from creeping into his system. The gnawing feeling only increased each time he caught a glimpse of the freshman looking absolutely miserable. It was impossible to believe that he was the same cheery nerd during the first few weeks of school. Those once bright blue eyes were dull, drained of their original light, and they were unsettling for Chris to look at for some reason.

Maybe it was because of the reason that he could never picture AJ as anything but annoyingly joyful. 

 

His friends only made everything worse. Kevin and the others read the entire situation between Chris and AJ as a sign and permission to up the bullying ante, choosing to humiliate, abuse and sometimes scar the younger man either physically or mentally. 

What was worse about it was how the other jocks were laughing at AJ's expense and trying to get Chris involved in assaulting the poor nerd. Chris was there when Kevin and Brock were dunking AJ's head into a toilet, as if trying to drown the brunette, and Chris couldn't stomach the scene.

And Chris couldn't deal with everything. The guilt was overwhelming, knowing that he was responsible for AJ's misery and that through his inaction, enabled the other jocks to make it a daily routine to torment the brunette as creatively as they could. It got to the point where Chris almost couldn't bring himself to go back to his and Styles' shared dormitory, feeling as if he didn't deserve to see AJ in the slightest moments of peace and safety. 

So Chris stayed at his safe havens as often as possible, to escape everything: The labels, the pressure and, of course, the life that was deteriorated thanks to him.

It was all his fault.

 

When he did go back to the dorm, however, his side of the room was always clean albeit not how he left it; his bed would be made, his clothes were neatly placed in his dresser and even the blankets were changed.

But what AJ failed to understand was that the boxes under his bed had a specific order in which Chris keeps them. And Chris keeps them strictly for situations like this.

AJ, by how he would rearranged the boxes after 'cleaning' under the bed, had been snooping. And he wasn't being thorough in trying to clean up his tracks. 

For example, the Polaroids. The photos were arranged by value, with the most memorable and priceless ones kept at the bottom in case the monthly inspection would make its rounds. For the past two weeks Chris had gotten back to the dorm a quarter past midnight –when AJ would be asleep– and, after finding one photo out of it's respective box, made it a point to check the photos' arrangement whenever he would go back. And without fail or complaint, Chris would rearrange the pictures in their proper order in hopes to some day catch AJ red-handed.

 

And eventually, Chris' plan proved successful in trapping the younger man, lucky coincidence be damned.

 

AJ was sitting on the floor near Chris' bed, the Polaroid box nearby and a few photos scattered in front of him. The brunette had one particular photo in his hands but Chris couldn't get a clear view of it.

The younger man quickly dropped the photo and stood up, looking deathly pale at being caught red-handed, and stammered as he attempted to explain the situation.

"I was– I was just cleaning," Chris could accept that. After all, it had some truth in it. "I didn't mean to– I'll put them away."

While AJ was grasping at straws trying to think of an excuse, Chris zeroed in on the way Styles was nervously tugging at the sleeves of his jacket. Actually, for the entirety of the month since he and AJ had spoken to each other, Chris had never seen AJ without some sort of jacket and he would always seem to tug or play with the sleeves.

Without warning, Chris stepped closer and grabbed one of the Georgian's wrists, noting the pained hiss emanating from him. 

 

No. No, please, don't let it be what Chris was thinking. No, no, no.

Against AJ's will, the jock quickly rolled up the sleeve. And Chris immediately found himself staring at the permanent marks of what he had done. 

Scars. Both fresh and healing ones angrily marked the tanned skin, some of the fresh ones were still beading the crimson liquid, and AJ was struggling to get away, begging Chris to let go and that it wasn't what he was thinking.

Chris could feel bile rising up to his throat and he found it difficult to breathe all of a sudden as he stared down at those wounds. He immediately let go of AJ's wrist, stumbling back a few steps but managed to keep standing albeit on shaky legs. AJ was looking at him with the same fearful look on his face, both of them catching their breath.

 "Why..." Chris had no idea what to say, everything was going so wrong so fast. "Why would you–"

"Don't worry about it," AJ muttered, turning away from the blonde to put the photos back in their box. "It's fine."

Chris angrily grabbed AJ's wrist again, ignoring the pained scream that came from the younger man, and turned him back to face him.

"It's not fine. Why would you do this?"

"Why should you care?"

That question made Chris pause, his grip on AJ's wrist loosening up a little. The answer wasn't as black-and-white as Chris had hoped. His relationship with AJ was complicated, and he really couldn't reply with whatever his brain had conjured up. 

And besides, saying it might make AJ's situation worse.

"Because...Dammit, AJ, you know why!"

AJ wrenched his wrist from Chris' grasp after a painful struggle. "How in the hell do you expect me to know?! Actually, how was I supposed to know you cared about me in the first place?!"

"I think you made it pretty clear that you didn't want me to care! And you didn't answer my question. Why would you do this, all of this, to yourself?!"

"It's none of your business!"

 

And they were back to this again. Any and all conversations always led to this, this back and forth war of words that Chris would give up everything to avoid. But not because he didn't like conflict; he could handle himself in a fight, verbal or physical, just fine and he never backed down until he proved his point across.

No, it had something to do with AJ –Wasn't every complicated thing in Chris' life connected to the brunette at this point?– and how there was something about the venom in AJ's words, how his words stung a little bit harsher and sunk a little deeper into Chris' being, and how every insult seemed to pierce right through to Chris' soul.

It had something to do with the reality that Chris was the one responsible for bringing out this side of AJ Styles, one that didn't sit well with the Canadian. Something about AJ being this vile and this furious somewhat terrified Chris, and he would give up all his possessions if it meant that he would never have to see this part of AJ again.

 

They fought like that for what felt like centuries; insults and angered demands were aimed at the other, both refusing to back down and determined to prove themselves in the right. It would have lasted all night had it not been for the dormitory supervisor knocking on their door and requesting for them to quiet down.

Chris looked at his wristwatch, 7:30 PM being the time displayed. He had somewhere to be, and it was the perfect excuse to get away from the enraged Georgian. Without a word, he took his towel and a change of clothes before exiting the room to head for the showers at the end of the hall.

When he came back, dressed in a black shirt and jeans, AJ was already asleep on his own bed. The mess of Polaroid photos were cleaned up, the box hidden under the bed once more. The brunette was sprawled on his back, blanket tangled up at his legs, and his arms clutching a pillow in a tight embrace. And Chris didn't want to leave all of a sudden.

But he was expected to attend. The other guys had been planning this boys' night out for three weeks, and Chris had never missed a single one. With a sigh, he slipped on his shoes and his jacket, grabbed his keys, wallet and phone, and was looking around the room to check if he'd forgotten anything. He wanted to bring his camera but Kevin and Alberto once broke Chris' first phone, and Chris would never risk his precious camera like that. 

Without thinking, he went over to pull AJ's blanket further up, AJ stirring a little but otherwise remained in slumber. Chris ran a hand through those messy brown locks before leaning down to place a quick kiss to AJ's cheek.

"G'night, AJ," He greeted before heading out the door.

* * *

"Chris, you're acting weird again!" Kevin always seemed to just _know_  if something was up with his boys. Chris didn't know if it was impressive or creepy. More often than not, though, it was the latter.

He and the other jocks were in a bar somewhere downtown, their fake IDs fooling the big bouncers out front, and they were all seated at a booth next to the pool table. Chris had to admit that he was acting a little too weird; bars like this one were his scene after all, and him just silently nursing his beer was a major red flag.

When it seemed that the blonde didn't hear Owens' concern, Roman kicked him hard under the table and successfully got Chris to pay attention.

"Huh? What?" Chris finally looked up from his bottle, his leg throbbing from where Reigns had kicked him. Fucker must've been wearing steel-toed boots again.

Cena and the others all paused their joyous chatter, and looked at their friend with a variety of confused, concerned and puzzled looks on their faces.

 

"You okay, Chris?" John asked, and Chris just replied with a hurried "Yeah, just…just fine."

Roman decided to pitch in. "You sure? You're not usually this quiet, man."

"What happened? Girlfriend dumped ya?"

"Gotta have a girlfriend for that to happen, Kevin." Chris just wanted them to leave him alone. He needed to think, but he probably shouldn't have gone with them in the first place. 

He texted AJ a short _'gone out w/ the guys. b back late -Y2J'_  so AJ didn't worry because, no matter what AJ says, he'd always worry about Chris. Or at least that's what Jericho told himself. He had no idea how AJ was gonna reply, if he was going to reply even.

In hindsight, Chris should have just stayed at the dorm and slept off the frustration from the early fight instead of going out with his friends and expecting a beer to make it go away. Maybe if he'd stayed, he and his dorm mate would have fixed things between them or at least talked about what was going on. 

The scars on AJ's forearm were haunting him, knowing it was all his fault why AJ had felt the need to harm himself in the first place. 

 

He was pulled out of his depressing thoughts when Roman kicked him under the table again. 

"Ow!" Chris reached a hand down to somehow soothe the aching area. "Could you stop doing that?"

Roman ignored his demand. "Can I talk to you for a sec?"

Chris warily looked at him. He and Reigns weren't entirely on good terms, what with Chris bullying Ambrose and all. But he agreed and Roman led him out of the bar. 

"This is about AJ, isn't it?" Roman asked once they were sure they were in a private setting at the back of the bar. 

Man, was everybody in this clique a fucking psychic or something? "What makes you think that I–"

"Stop with the bullshit, Chris. I heard your little fight with AJ at the dorms earlier. And don't tell me you haven't noticed that AJ changed. I know it had something to do with you. So tell me what happened."

The look on Roman's face was one that couldn't be taken lightly, even by Chris who was usually so defiant. With a huff, Chris leaned back against the filthy brick wall. He then proceeded to tell the sophomore everything; the incident at the elevator, the party, their trip to the abandoned park up until their fight a month ago. Roman just listened, which helped Chris get his thoughts straightened out.

When the blonde was done, Roman looked as if he was holding back a laugh. What the fuck was so funny about all this?

"You've been avoiding AJ because...why exactly?" The Samoan asked, a hint of amusement was laced in his question and it took a lot for Chris to resist just punching him in the face.

Chris ran a hand through his hair, annoyed that he had to repeat what he'd just said moments ago. "Because he turned out to be such an asshole–"

"And you're not?"

"Will you just let me finish?" Roman was quick to grant him that request. "He turned out to be like every other girl I've dated. He wouldn't talk to me and he expects me to just know what I did wrong."

 

Roman was quiet for a while but when he did speak, what he said shocked the older man to silence.

"'S funny, 'cause I remember AJ telling me that he's staying away from you 'cause he thinks you have a girlfriend."

Chris' mouth hung open, blue eyes wide with disbelief. AJ thought…– He actually thought…– If Jericho didn't already feel like shit, this just took his guilt to a new, more nerve-gnawing level.

Reigns, on the other hand, looked to be the only one who found humor in this situation. And if Chris wasn't too busy trying to wrap his mind around what his friend just revealed to him, he would've let his urges to punch Roman take over.

 

The Samoan, when it seemed that Chris was going to be stuck in processing what he was just told, continued.

"I mean, AJ wouldn't stop talking Dean's ear off about it and now, Dean wouldn't stop telling me about it."

Roman finally realized how serious the situation was for Chris, and he put a supportive hand on his friend's shoulder.

"I really think you two should talk, Chris. AJ is a good kid, and he doesn't deserve any of this bullshit. Because I don't know if you've noticed or not, but he's so into you. If you could hear everything he's ever said about you when he was talking to me and Dean, you'd get it."

"He talks about you like you're the best thing that ever happened in his life,"  _I really think it's the other way around,_ Chris thought to himself. "And I just really hate how whatever happened between you changed him."

The blonde flinched at the last part. He was getting so sick of hearing it, but he knew Roman was right and that he deserved to hear this. Maybe it would knock some sense into him.

But apparently, Reigns wasn't finished. 

 

"Ever since I got to WWE Academy, I've been hearing nothing about you except for how much of a selfish and arrogant asshole you are–" Chris opened his mouth to protest, but Roman's grip on his shoulder tightened in warning.

"Prove them wrong, Chris. Prove _me_ wrong. But until you can somehow fix what's between you and AJ, you're gonna stay the same selfish bastard AJ knows you are."

And with that threatening ultimatum, Roman left Chris alone to think about what was said to him. Chris took a deep breath and ran his hands through his hair.

Roman's words still rang through Chris' mind.

_'You're gonna stay the same selfish bastard AJ knows you are'_

_'The selfish bastard_ _AJ_ knows  _you are'_

 

Chris tried to convince himself that his hands were wet because they were just sweaty. It wasn't like he was crying.

Nope, not crying at all.

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Man, Roman giving ultimatums seems to be my aesthetic. But yeah. Sorry this took a while, same reason from last week. 
> 
> Hint: If you wanna kinda know the thing I'm going with the plot, listen to Taylor Swift's 'Fifteen'. And take note of the lines:
> 
> "You sit in class next to a redhead named Abigail and soon enough, you're best friends."
> 
> "Abigail gave everything she had to a boy who changed his mind."
> 
> "Abigail" (Not to be confused with the Wyatt's Sister Abigail) will be replaced with a main character from this AU and s/he will be one of Chris' exes.
> 
> You have until the next chapter to guess who it is.
> 
> As always, comments and kudos are nice so feel free to leave some. Questions, suggestions and stuff about this fic can be sent via ask on my tumblr. (And you can leave your guesses as to who "Abigail" is)


	12. (Don't) Trust Me

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Again, read the tags because there is homophobic language in this chapter. 
> 
> Reader discretion advised.

"I just don't get why you still put up with this shit." Dean admitted as seated himself down on AJ's bed. "You can't keep this up, AJ. You need Chris out of your life, and you know it."

 

Dean wasn't sleeping anyway when AJ called him in the middle of the night, so he'd been quick to come over since his dorm was just one floor up. Besides, this had been the first time in a month that AJ talked to him so it must have been serious. AJ was curled up into a ball at the window nook, knees hugged close to his chest, and was looking at anywhere to avoid looking Dean in the eyes.

AJ knew Dean was right; Dean had always been right so far. But exactly how he was supposed to get Chris out of his life was the problem. He can't file for a dorm transfer, it's too late to switch classes and he couldn't possibly transfer schools again. Not after being accepted into the most prestigious one. And there was no way he could put his parents through that again.

He'd received a text from Chris a few hours ago, informing him of the jock's whereabouts for the first time in weeks. It wasn't much but it helped AJ ease up some, knowing that Chris was somewhere relatively safe and would probably return soon. In the mean time, Dean was there to keep AJ company.

 

AJ groaned. He'd heard it too many times before from teachers and the guidance counselor. "I know," He'd forced the words out through gritted teeth as he clutched the denim material of his pants. "I know. I just...I don't–"

"You don't know how," Dean supplied for him, and AJ nodded in defeat. There was a long silence between them, before Dean continued. "I'm not–... When I said 'get Chris out of your life', I didn't mean it literally."

Good, because honestly, AJ didn't know if he would be able to do such a thing.

"I know how difficult it is to...to deal with Jericho, y'know?" Dean sounded so confused, and he had a bitter expression on his face when AJ glanced at him on the bed. "He's a jackass. He's selfish, doesn't care about other people but himself–"

Dean hopped off the bed, his hands clenching and unclenching at his sides, like he was itching to punch a hole through a wall. AJ looked at him curiously. _What was his deal?_

"You were right when you said that he's the most egotistical bastard in the world," The Ohioan's voice was shaking now, his head bowed so his bangs concealed his eyes. "He never thinks about how his actions would affect people, he does things that would benefit no one else but him, and he–…"

Dean's voice increased in volume and dripped more vitriol after every insult and by the time he cut himself off he was nearly screaming, and paused his pacing in the middle of the room. His fists were trembling, and he was turning his head away for some reason.

After a while, Dean brought up the courage to finish his revelation.

 

"He's gonna throw you aside when he's done with you." 

 

AJ didn't need to know the details to figure out what Dean was talking about. He knew that Dean and Chris weren't the best of friends but AJ only assumed that it was just caused by WWEA's student hierarchy. He would have never guessed that Chris and Dean shared something as intimate as what the younger man was implying.

The blonde took a moment to compose himself, no doubt that Dean had never disclosed this to anyone before, before turning back to sit on the bed once more. Once seated, the blonde placed his elbows on his knees and wiped his eyes with the back of his hand. Another lapse of silence hung in the air, AJ not really knowing what to say. He had so many questions he wanted to ask, but wasn't sure if this was the appropriate time to address such issues.

When did Dean and Chris get together? What happened? Was Dean still harboring feelings for the jock?

It seemed that Dean was indeed still having feelings for Chris, if the way he reacted was anything to go by, and that he was just using toughness to somehow show his former partner that whatever happened didn't affect him.

AJ tried to use that method too, but it turned him into someone so horrible, so despicable that even Dean was pissed off with him at one point. Styles didn't know how Dean was able to pull off such an attitude, maybe the blonde had been acting like so for so long that it had become second nature.

 

Dean cleared his throat, managing to pull AJ out of his thoughts. "I know you have questions, Allen–" Ambrose had never called him that before. So why did he do so now? "So just fucking ask them and be done with it."

Should he? Would Dean be angry? Was this a test? AJ didn't really want to anger Dean any further, especially after their little argument a week prior and obviously Chris was a touchy subject for the younger man, so maybe asking questions wouldn't be such a good idea.

But dammit, he was curious and he needed to know. "When...when did you two...y'know...?"

"It was a week after school started last year," Dean answered obediently, which helped AJ relax. "I was still a new kid like you back then, and I…didn't really know what I was doing. He started talking to me, asking me to hang out and shit, and like a dumb motherfucker I went with him every time."

"Everyone was warning me not to trust him but he just–…" Dean forced a weak smile, his eyes had a far away look to them, like he was reliving the memory. "Just made me feel special, y'know? Like for once in my life, someone gave a shit about me. I was so happy whenever I was with him, and I was willing to do anything for him."

AJ knew, just by Dean's tone, what he meant by 'anything'. He was about to ask but Dean seemed to have sensed that AJ was wondering about that, and the blonde promptly answered.

"So when he asked me to…to–" Dean hid his face behind his hands, too ashamed to admit what he did, and AJ could hear the sobs muffled. "When he asked me to h-have sex with him, I…I did, and–… I found out a week later that he filmed the entire thing 'cause he was dared to date me and get me in bed. I don't know if…if he still has the video, but I know he's gonna use it against me one day. Cause that's the kind of asshole he is."

 

AJ was too much in shock to even opened his mouth to say anything. Chris was cruel enough to not only manipulate Dean into agreeing to have sex, but also film the whole thing. For nothing more than a few extra money in his pocket? 

He felt a renewed anger for the Canadian. Who's to say that he wasn't planning to have AJ as his next victim, or otherwise do something way worse? After all, Chris seemed like the type of man to do such vile things for the sake of approval from his peers. 

But mostly, AJ was angry at himself. For being dumb enough to trust Jericho in the first place, for letting himself believe that Chris considered him as something more than just a prize to be claimed and bragged about.

And for letting himself think that he could change him. That probably was the worst assumption he's ever made, and he made a note to never let himself fall into that trap again.

 

"I wanted to warn you about him," Dean continued, the fingers of his right hand drumming a random beat against his collarbone. "But knowing that Chris had you wrapped around his finger like he had me, you wouldn't listen to me, would you?"

AJ was still for a while, unable to bring himself to look Dean in the eye, but Dean knew the answer all too well. Chris had a way with people, could get them to do whatever he wanted them to, and knew just how to do it. Dean and countless others had fallen victim to Chris' traps and games, and sadly another poor innocent life was corrupted by the jock.

It was terrifying how a student would be capable of such manipulation at a young age.

"I'm sorry for letting this go too far," Dean seemed absolutely miserable when he finally looked at his best friend.

"If I'd told you what Jericho was really like, all this wouldn't have happened. But I'm telling you now, Styles: Don't buy into the lie like I did. No matter what he says, don't believe a word of it. He's a selfish, low-life son of a–"

The door opened a few moments later, Chris freezing in place at the open door at the sight of Dean and AJ in the same room. Dean looked furious, his glare aimed right at Chris' head, but held up his hands in surrender before roughly pushing past the Canadian to exit the room.

Dean had given him advice, now it was AJ's decision to make.

 

"What was he doing here?" Chris questioned calmly as he closed the door. AJ glanced at his dorm mate from his spot by the window, because a slight tinge of jealousy was laced through Chris' question. The blonde didn't look drunk, at least he was sober enough to keep himself upright as he took off his jacket and draped on across the back of his desk chair.

AJ got up from his seat by the window to transfer to his bed but he didn't lie down just yet. As much as he wanted to avoid having a conversation with Jericho, AJ knew he had to. Just to get it over with, one way or another it needed to end.

The brunette shrugged his shoulders. "Just called him over. See if he wanted to hang out."

AJ could see that Chris wanted to react, the older man's shoulders tensed and he noticeably paused his efforts of taking off his shoes. The blonde was quick to change his expression, but AJ caught it.

"Oh, that's...cool, I guess," Chris commented as he slid his shoes under his bed. He nervously scratched at his nose, looking at anywhere except AJ. "Did you have fun?"

AJ couldn't stop the grin from forming across his lips. He's never seen Chris like this before; nervous and jealous, and it was turning out to be so entertaining. But the way Chris had said it was implying something, and AJ wasn't sure if he liked it or not. "What's that supposed to mean?"

Chris shrugged as he scrolled through his phone but not really looking for anything in particular. "Just curious. You never invited him here before."

"So I'm not allowed to have friends over? Is that it?"

"I never said that, AJ. Don't put words in my mouth."

"That's what it sounds like to me."

 

The jock threw his hands up in surrender. There was just no winning with AJ. "I'm going to sleep. Forget it." He placed his phone on the bedside table and turned off the lights before laying back down in bed, pulling the covers up to keep himself warm.

AJ had done the same, flicking off his lamp and cocooning himself in the warmth of his blankets. Except he couldn't sleep. It's been a while since he and Chris had slept wishing the same area as each other, and the peaceful feeling of the first few weeks of school was gone. Replaced with cold unease and paranoia. 

Surely, Chris wasn't cruel enough to attempt something while AJ was asleep, was he? The southern boy was pretty certain his dorm mate wasn't _that_  much of a psychopath, but one can never be too sure. Unconsciously, AJ pressed his back against the wall behind him, facing the blonde's bed in case Chris tried pull any sneaky business.

With that extra bit of precaution, AJ fell into a deep sleep.

* * *

 

His dream started off nicely enough.

 

He was back at the abandoned nature park, its chilling atmosphere accompanied by the symphony of creaking rusty metal caused the hairs on the back of AJ's neck to stand on end. All alone and not knowing where to go, he trudged forward, allowing his memory to guide him to hopefully where the exit was.

"AJ?" A very familiar voice came from somewhere behind the brunette, and AJ might have gotten whiplashed from how quick he turned his head. A wave of relief and comfort rushed through his veins and, without thinking, he allowed himself to follow the voice.

"AJ, come on, you're almost there." Chris. It was Chris. AJ would know that voice, could single it out from a chorus of others'. Even with the faint sound from the distance, he could clearly recognize the voice, the accent. The words themselves caused the freshman to walk faster, increasing his speed after each beckoning.

 

"Come on, I'm right here."

"You're so close."

"You can make it."

"You gotta be careful, okay?"

"Come on, you're so close! You can make it!"

"AJ, I'm right here, okay?"

 

By the last message, AJ was frantically running, as if his life depended on it. Maybe it did, judging by how Chris' tone shifted from supporting to terrified. Like he was attempting to direct AJ away from an unseen threat behind him. 

AJ shoved the branches aside, some of them scraping at his face and leaving twigs and leaves in his hair. His breathing was ragged, rushed, and his legs were burning from the exertion but he had to keep going. For what, he still wasn't sure but–

 

"You actually thought you could trust me?" Chris' voice again, except this time it was cold and unnerving compared to the first one's gentle and pleasing. The once sunset-painted scenery of the park grew darker, the air felt colder and AJ immediately felt eyes all around him.

AJ stopped his running, the park's previously creepy yet somehow endearing atmosphere was now replaced with something menacing, something far beyond horrifying that AJ wasn't sure there was a way to describe it. Even the air smelled of something terrible, like sulfur but where it came from was unknown.

All the Georgian knew was that his surroundings seemed to have been suffocating all his senses.

Maniacal laughter crackled through the air like thunder, and AJ stumbled back in his shock that he wasn't able to keep himself upright.

"You never learn, do you? You never listen to people better than you! Everything has been your fault!"

 

"You actually thought Chris would like someone like you?" Nikki's cruel words echoed not just through the park, but in AJ's mind as well which made it even more unbearable as the young man attempted to shield his ears. Doing so only seemed to have amplified to the volume of the words.

More and more voices melded together, repeating insults and threats AJ has heard so much before:

"Faggot!" "Redneck slut!" "Freak!"

But the most painful one of all came from Chris himself, and it sounded as if the blonde was screaming right next to AJ's ear. The voices stopped all around him so AJ could hear every word:

"I thought you would be different! I really thought you would be different! But you turned out to be just LIKE! EVERYBODY! ELSE!"

AJ tried, so desperately tried to block out Chris' words. He was writhing on the ground, dried leaves and twigs cracking under his back.

"I'm sorry!" He forced out as loud as his voice could muster. "Make it stop! MAKE IT STOP!"

But despite his pleas, it was the same thing over and over again. Each wave of piercing words grew in volume and venom, and AJ wasn't sure which words were actually said and which ones came from his own mind.

It didn't matter. He needed it to stop.

* * *

 

Chris was always a light sleeper; that much he could admit to himself.

So it didn't come as a surprise when he was woken up by a very quiet whimper coming from AJ's side of the room. At first he ignored it, thinking that his roommate was having one of _those_  dreams –which wouldn't be the first time– but when AJ started to scream, Chris quickly pushed the covers away and turned on the dorm's lights. The younger man was tangled up in the covers, his forehead coated with a thin sheen of sweat and his expression twisted into one of fear and desperation.

The jock removed the blankets from AJ's body and scooped up the brunette for a brief moment so Chris could sit down on his roommate's bed, laying AJ's head against his chest. He attempted to shake the freshman awake, resorting to talking AJ out of it when the first plan didn't work.

"AJ? AJ, you gotta wake up for me, buddy. Come on." AJ was still crying, choked apologies were prominent words in the garbled mix of sobs and breaths for air. 

God, it was so painful to see AJ in that situation. And Chris was briefly worried. How many nights had AJ suffered night terrors like this, all alone with no one to wake him out of it? But the blonde didn't have time to worry about it. He needed to wake AJ up.

"AJ, it's me. It's Chris, I'm right here. You gotta wake up for me. Come on, wake up!" Nothing was working, not even grabbing hold of both Styles' shoulders and violently shaking him was enough. This was turning bad, and Chris didn't know what to do except press his forehead against the younger man's, ignoring the sweat slicking the skin.

"Please," He'd never begged so hard for something in his life, but along came AJ Styles. "Please, come on. You need to wake up. Whatever you're seeing, it's not real. None of that is real."

 

And like a cheesy romance movie, AJ calmed down after that, taking a deep breath before holding himself close against Chris' warm body. He remained asleep but didn't seem to be distressed as earlier anymore, but Chris had to keep an eye on the younger student. 

He protectively wrapped his arms around AJ's form, as if claiming AJ and shielding him from any nightmares that threatened to plague the brunette's sleep. And just like that, curled in each other's embrace, they both fell asleep.

For once since their feud, everything seemed right.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So...Dean is Abigail! The answer was practically in the hints:
> 
> "You sit in class next to a redhead named Abigail, soon enough, YOU'RE BESTFRIENDS"
> 
> Remember the tag I have for this fic? "Chris is an asshole" or something like that? Yeah, this fic goes into detail as to why I tagged this as such.
> 
> Also, a lot of symbolism went into this chapter, especially in the dream sequence. Idk, I like writing symbolic dreams.
> 
> As always, comments and kudos are nice! Questions, suggestions, ideas and concerns regarding this fic can be sent to my tumblr via ask.


	13. Give Me Room to Think

Chris wasn't sure how he managed to get up the next morning. Waking up with an attractive young Southern boy in his arms was no easy feat, let alone pry himself away from that boy long enough to shower and get ready for school.

He stayed for a while after that, though. He had at least half an hour before he had to meet with his friends at the football field and a long three-hour wait until classes actually begin. So he sat back on AJ's bed as the brunette slept beside him. Styles looked so peaceful and Chris fought the urge to hold the younger man again. Not only would he seem creepy, watching him sleep was creepy enough, but also no doubt that he'd receive a black eye for his attempt.

  
He would have stayed longer, after all he had three hours to spare, but he had gotten a text message from Nikki aggressively reminding him of their group's regularly-scheduled meeting:

_Chris, where da hell r u? Tell ur gf 2 save ur dick for later. The guys r looking 4 u. -Nikki_

Thankfully, Chris' phone was on silent beforehand so AJ remained in his peaceful slumber. Chris hesitantly got up from his spot on his roommate's bed and proceeded to his own side of the room to retrieve and put on his shoes. He checked the pockets of his pants and his jacket one last time to make sure the usual stuff were there: Phone, wallet, keys, ID in case the security guards and hallway monitors decide to be extra strict that day; yep, everything was there.

With that last cursory check, he scooped up his bag from where he'd dropped it on the floor and headed out the door.

 

* * *

 

"Ugh, finally!" Nikki's voice was always grating on the ears in the morning but Chris had gone immune to it. "I was beginning to think you were going all in with how long you were gone."

As always, Kevin had a clever remark. "Hope you were safe about it, though."

"How'd you manage to sneak past into the girls' dorm?" Was Cena's question, which earned him a punch to the arm courtesy of his girlfriend.

Chris settled his bag down on the grass along with his friends', then took a seat on the first level with Cena, Owens and Del Rio. He still felt a little sleepy and really wished he'd stayed at the dorm for a while longer to catch up on slumber, but he apparently was so important that their daily meet-ups could not continue without him.

 

He ignored his friends' remarks. "Aside from hanging out, why am I here again? 'Cause all I wanna do is skip class and go back to sleep."

"You're already failing three subjects," John reminded him, and Chris felt sick to his stomach. "If you wanna keep that scholarship of yours, you better get your shit together and at least try and make an effort."

The Canadian groaned. He'd forgotten about the scholarship he was offered the year before. He didn't think he'd be failing his classes this badly, but then again he'd already skipped a total of two weeks since school started. 

He rubbed his face with both hands. "Don't remind me. I'm trying to fix it, trust me."

"Yeah, among other things." Roman commented as he approached the group. The others greeted him with the usual brofists and 'what's up's before the sophomore sat down a few levels above from where Chris sat.

Chris hadn't forgotten the ultimatum Roman had given him the day before, though. As if the younger man would let him forget. He just wished that Roman would lay off, give him room to think. The choice wasn't really that black and white like the Samoan thought. Chris was given a lot on his plate and not enough time. It was unfair.

 

The oh-so-important meet-up went by rather quickly, with Chris just keeping his mouth shut and supplying his opinion when it was needed. He didn't know if his confusion showed in his facial expressions because Kevin didn't have a smart remark about his unusual silence for once, but Chris was still grateful for it.

"So," John clapped his hands once, the sudden noise nearly made Chris jump out of his seat. "We got another game this Friday against TNA High."

Cena didn't even get to finish his sentence because everyone else started spouting prideful statements and a couple of "ain't no way those cock-sucking assholes are gonna win"s. On a normal day, (Normal being his life before AJ Styles, anyway) Chris would agree with them and maybe even throw around a few homophobic names as well. 

But it wasn't a normal day, and Chris would never see a normal day ever again for the rest of his high school days. Yet another pressure Chris had to worry about. Between his grades, the fate of his scholarship and his situation with AJ, Chris didn't have room to act for himself anymore.

 

"But seriously, guys," It was Kevin's turn to give the pep talk. "There is no way we're allowing those stick-in-the-ass sons of bitches to take what belongs to us. We kick their asses every single year, and no damn way we're stopping now."

The pep talk seemed to have tuned itself out, Chris no longer hearing the intended encouraging words and was dragged back to think about his responsibilities. But even when he was deaf to the world at that moment, select words managed to sneak themselves past Chris' ears.

"-make sure that Chris comes to practice on time…Chris, you can't keep skipping classes…university scouts…be there"

"Chris, are you okay?" _Summer_. There was no denying that.

Reluctantly, Chris looked up and sure enough, Summer took it upon herself to sit down beside her former lover. She must have been there all along and Chris just didn't notice she was there, but Chris was still surprised to see her.

Summer looked deathly concerned, her hand unwelcome as it settled on Chris' chest. "You look a little pale."

The jock looked around. His friends had gone quiet and stared at him with the same level of concern on their expressions. Even Owens seemed worried. 

 

Chris took a few seconds to notice how heavily he was breathing, his chest dramatically rising and falling in accordance to his respiration. For some reason it was difficult to get some air in his lungs, difficult to move even. He forced himself to stand up but paid for it when the difficulty to breathe increased and his vision blurred and distorted.

He could hear his name being called, as well as a few questions directed toward him, but he could hardly hear them over the sound of his own labored breathing and the blood rushing in his ears. It was a cold September morning yet it somehow felt scorching, and Chris could feel beads of sweat rolling down his temples. 

His friends crowding around him didn't help in the slightest. Chris couldn't tell whose hands were touching him and trying to tug off his jacket, and he tried to take a step back to distance himself to somehow give himself room to breathe but instead stumbled back when the back of his thighs hit the steps of the bleachers.

Everything was too loud and sounded garbled, so much so that Chris could barely hear himself think. In his mind, it was a staticky mess of 'do this, do that, be this, be that'. He couldn't deal with this. He didn't want to deal with this.

 

Using all the strength he had, he stood up on shaky legs and pushed through the barricade his peers formed around him and ran as fast as he could to the parking lot, ignoring the frantic calls from everyone else.

He needed to get away from there, he needed time for himself. Surely, he'd be allowed that right.

* * *

 

"He just ran off?"

AJ was a bit puzzled when Roman came knocking at his door some time during free period. And he was surprised and a bit pissed off when the Samoan apparently only visited to tell him that Chris ran away.

Roman made himself comfortable by the window nook, his back resting against the wall framing the small space. "Yeah, just…took off and left. Acted weird, too, before he did."

"Weird? Weird how?"

Roman hesitated for just a moment, choosing his words carefully. "I dunno how to describe it. He just started to panic and he wasn't…he was out of it. He didn't hear us when we were asking him if he was okay, nothing. Just got up and left."

AJ took a moment to process that. Chris panicked and then ran off? That couldn't be it. There had to be something else. 

 

"Well, what were you guys doing before he ran off?" He had to know, otherwise there was nothing he could do to help. 

"Nothing," Roman's response wasn't really that helpful. "Just talked about his scholarship–"

Wait, what? "S-scholarship? What?" That was a bit surprising.

The Samoan nodded. "Yeah, thought you knew. Actually surprised he didn't tell you himself."

AJ scoffed at that, dropping his gaze to the floorboards. "He doesn't tell me anything. Not anymore."

And it was true; Aside from the obvious situation of them sharing a room, he and Chris may as well be strangers. The level of trust they had the first few weeks of school seemed to have gone up in smoke after their argument, and they reverted to nothing more than silence and the occasional conversation. 

Roman was silent for a while, like he was holding back some big secret. But he eventually spoke up. "Tell me again why you're staying away from him. I forget."

The brunette gave Roman an angry glare. He'd already repeated himself and his reason for the past month and he was getting tired of saying it. Roman should know it by now, seeing as how often he and AJ would talk.

With a sigh, AJ covered his face with both hands as he recited the reason like a prayer.

 

"It's not…I don't have a place in his life, y'know? He's a jock, I'm a geek; It doesn't work like that. His friends mean a lot to him and I don't wanna take that away from him. I know what it would do to his reputation if everyone knew what we–" AJ stopped himself, remembered to keep his distance. "What _I_  felt. And besides, I don't wanna get him in trouble with his girlfriend. I don't wanna be responsible for ruining something already there."

 _Because I would know how that girl would feel. Because I've been in that situation before_. Those words, AJ left unspoken because no doubt that Roman would ask him about it and AJ wasn't ready to talk about it.

Roman let him breathe for a moment, the confession always seemed to leave the brunette slightly breathless every time. It was when AJ cleared his throat and uncovered his face did Roman talk.

 

"AJ, you honestly thought that Chris…that he and Summer...Oh, my god." Roman just shook his head at the ridiculousness of the situation. Not the silliness of AJ and Chris' argument, but of the fact that he himself let this feud get this far without intervening.

AJ's look of shock was expected but Roman didn't give him a chance to add commentary just yet.

"I'm assuming you thought that he had a girlfriend because of what you saw at the party," It wasn't a question but AJ nodded his head anyway. "That's the thing. This entire feud you have with Jericho is all a big misunderstanding." The sophomore student breathed out a humorless chuckle before he went on with his lecture.

"You and Chris are more similar than I thought. Both of you like to jump to conclusions but when it turns out you're wrong, you can't fucking grow a set and admit when you've fucked up."

"I ain't stupid!" AJ defended, jabbing his finger in his own ribs to emphasize his point. He angrily stood up from his spot on the bed, allowing him to tower over the sophomore. "And you can't fucking blame me for thinking that Chris is with someone else! Whether or not he was with that girl, I saw what I saw. And you can't blame me for trying to stay away because I didn't want to ruin what they have!"

"But it's stupid to think that Chris was in a relationship just because you saw him kiss a girl," Roman stood up as well, his expression firm and dangerous.

"That's the point I'm trying to make here. I'm not saying that you're stupid, but choosing to stay quiet and avoid the situation instead of sitting down and talking about it is a mistake that so many people have done. And I thought you of all people would be smart enough to not make that mistake."

AJ tried to looked up at Roman, his angered glare beginning to crack underneath the intensity of the taller man's. For all the time he's known Roman, AJ found out quickly that Roman was always right when it came to Chris. After all, he and Chris have been friends for a longer period of time. And AJ was starting to realize the weight of his mistake.

 

An exhausted sigh escaped from Roman's mouth as the jock ran his hands through his long hair. "You always tell me how much all this has been hurting you. And I believe you, I get it. But didn't you ever stop to think how this is hurting Chris too? How it's hurting everyone? Did you really think Dean and I want to see our friends miserable all the damn time?"

"I'm not telling you to forgive Chris just like that–" Roman snapped his fingers twice. He then placed that same hand on AJ's shoulder. "You don't even have to forgive him at all if you don't want to. But if he did lead you on like you think he did, then talk to him. Don't expect him to understand and say sorry when you won't even give him a chance to ask. And most importantly, let him explain himself because he's been keeping everything to himself and it's starting to weigh him down. He needs someone who will listen, and I have no doubt that you're the only person who he'll trust to tell all that."

Roman patted AJ's shoulder and walked over to the door to let himself out since it seemed the Georgian needed some time alone to think. He stopped when a hand grabbed him by the wrist. He turned to look back at AJ, and the brunette's eyes were getting watery.

"Did he say where he was going?" AJ asked, his voice quiet as if afraid to let anyone else hear him. 

Roman shrugged his shoulders. "He didn't say anything, just took off. He's been missing ever since, and the guys and I looked everywhere to find him. Even checked the town just in case he decided to skip classes again."

AJ let go of Roman's wrist as he wracked his brain, trying to think of some place where Chris could be. He then recalled their trip from almost a month ago:

_'If you ever need to find me, you'd probably wanna search here first because more often than not, I'll be here.'_

 

"Roman, you wouldn't happen to know how to drive, would you?"

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I know what you're thinking.
> 
> "Shane, what the hell! You kept us waiting and you left us with a cliffhanger!"
> 
> I know, it's horrible. I'm a horrible person. But it won't stay a cliffhanger for long. Trust me. I know what I'm doing.


	14. I'm Not Sure Anymore

Chris drove for what seemed like hours, was sure that he had gotten lost a couple of times before he eventually made it to the abandoned nature park. He parked his truck a few ways past the entrance, just in what used to be a picnic area, to make sure no one would know he was there. After he gathered his bagpack from the passenger seat, he exited his vehicle and headed north to where the lakeside was. 

Walking towards his destination was just as therapeutic as actually being there. Despite the crunch of dried leaves and twigs under his shoes, everything was quiet and that allowed him to get his thoughts straightened out. 

Whether he wanted them or not, he had responsibilities now and he couldn't afford to dick around and play games like he did during his freshman and sophomore years. Classes were a little bit tougher, exams were a little bit harder and teachers were way harsher; In class and academics alone there was no room for error, not in WWE Academy and especially not now. Not when he was at the top of his game, when more and more was expected out of him with less and less time.

Then of course, there was football and by extension his friends. The WWE's Red Demons may have been undefeated against TNA's Black Panthers for six consecutive seasons, but WWE has to stop underestimating them. They've gotten better and better with each passing game and had learned to better strategize against the Demons. Last season, it was only by a hair did WWE manage to win and keep the trophy and the glory. 

Now the pressure on the team has been greater than ever before. As if the regular pressure of being expected to be WWEA's greatest football team batch in history wasn't bad enough.

 

Next was his scholarship at his dream university. Being a student at that university was a dream of his for the longest time, and he'd found it a bit difficult to believe when they'd first contacted him saying that he was getting a scholarship, especially this early in high school. It was a football scholarship, but he still had grades to maintain. Which was the reason why he had straightened up once his junior year came about. He had at least two more years to impress the scouts, and he wasn't planning on disappointing them in any way.

 

And, what should have been the least of Chris' concerns, the situation with AJ Styles.

 

If it was anyone else, Chris would not have hesitated to throw them aside for the sake of staying focused on football. In fact, many of his past relationships ended because of that same disposal habit of his. Not that he cared, of course. Because at the end of the game when he's being lifted up on his teammates' shoulders in victory, more and more women lined up to replace the one he lost.

But for some reason, he can't just shake AJ off as easily. He expected it would have been effortless to do so, seeing as how Chris knew nothing about him and never had a relationship with him anyway. Alas, with most things regarding the Georgian, pushing him aside was not as simple.

As time went on, Chris was starting to think that doing so was impossible.

Each responsibility made itself out to be the most important one, and Chris wasn't sure which one he should really focus on. He knew he had to keep himself focused, for both his studies and the big game, at least that's what his coach and teachers tell him. It wasn't as easy as they make it seem to be. Juggling studies, football and his friends proved to be tiring, and Chris wanted nothing more than to drop them all. 

 

His thoughts were interrupted when his phone vibrated in his pocket. He ignored it for the first two rings, letting the apparent call go to voicemail. But after the third call and the caller leaving no messages whatsoever, Chris stopped his trek, fished his phone out of his pocket and checked the caller ID.

The contact photo displayed on the screen made his heart ache something bad. The contact was one he'd meant to delete but never had the time nor the heart to do so. The image of his trip with AJ in the same exact park as Chris was located at that moment was sending mixed emotions rushing through Chris' body. As a result the Canadian's thumb hovered over the screen, torn between accepting and rejecting the call.

Eventually, the call went to voicemail again but AJ didn't leave him a message, so Chris put his phone back in his jacket pocket and continued his journey towards the lake. He was stopped five minutes later by his phone vibrating for a call yet again, and Chris yanked the gadget out of his pocket. Sure enough, AJ was calling him again but this time, Chris just outright taps at his phone to reject the call and not allowing AJ to leave a message.

* * *

 

"Fuck, c'mon," AJ growled when his call was denied. He pulled his phone away from his ear and quickly typing the all-too-familiar number in again. As it rang, AJ put it on speaker and held his phone a few inches away from his mouth. 

"C'mon, please, please, _please_." Again, the call was ignored and sent to voicemail, and AJ couldn't stop the worry building up in his gut. What could Chris be doing? Where was he, even? Roman and AJ drove past the abandoned park twice, both times being unable to spot the tell-tale red pickup truck at the front entrance.

Currently, the two searchers were at a diner down town, trying to think of other places where Chris would go. AJ didn't know any other of Chris' safe havens and it was obvious that Chris was not at the one sanctuary the Georgian did know.

Even Roman tried to get Chris to answer, planning to hand the phone to AJ once his friend picked up. He was in for a shock, however, when his call was denied as well. For the first time in their two-year friendship Chris _ignored_  Roman's call, not even letting the Samoan leave a message at least.

 

Roman stared at his phone, dumbfounded at what just happened. AJ seemed to have understood the severity of Chris' actions, knowing full well that Chris was second only to Dean as Roman's bestfriend. For Roman, it felt like a door slamming in his face. The entire situation just went from bad to worse, and Roman abruptly stood up from his seat at their booth. 

"C'mon," Roman urged, his voice hurried with worry. "We gotta go find him. Let's check the park again."

AJ sensed the urgency, and quickly grabbed his backpack beside him before following Roman out to the parking lot.

* * *

 

The reason why Chris loved the park's lakeside wasn't its isolated location, nor was it its gorgeous scenery. Of course, he appreciated all that but he really didn't need isolation and beautiful surroundings to love this place.

No, it was because he was in his lonesome here. There were no significant events, no important memories, that would otherwise prevent him from being himself. The park was his safe haven because it was still somehow unfamiliar to him, and that alone helps him think. 

Or at least there were no memories until he brought AJ to this place. It was a bittersweet moment for Chris to return to his sanctuary after almost a month of staying away from it, knowing full well of the admittedly happy memories that have been linked to the lakeside. There was no direction Chris could turn to without remembering something about his last visit here. How AJ climbed a few trees, how AJ ran along the shore, how AJ dipped his bare feet in the cool water of the lake.

They were happy events, of course, but Chris couldn't shake off the feeling that AJ had somehow tarnished the purpose of this place.

 

To somehow distance himself from the bitter recollection, he stayed away from the shore and just leaned back against the trunk of a tree. Once he settled his bag beside his hip and hugged his thighs closer to his chest, it was easier for him to forget about everything else and just think.

There were so many things demanding his attention, so many responsibilities each insisting that it was the top priority, and Chris didn't know if he could accomplish one without completely dismissing the others.

What he did know, however, was something had to give. He had to give something up and, as much as it unbelievably pained him to admit, that something would have to be AJ. After all, AJ was just another student, he wasn't all that important, and he was definitely a distraction. At least that's what Chris tried to convince himself. Problem was Chris couldn't bring himself to completely shove AJ away. Besides, their living quarters made it impossible to do so even if he wanted to.

 

There was just something charming, almost magnetic, about AJ Styles that the Canadian couldn't quite understand. Perhaps it was the naïveté and innocence of the brunette, or how he's just so optimistic about everything; Chris wasn't sure.

But the day he winked at AJ the first time he saw him, he was already drawn in way in too deep. He fell deeper into the trap when he found out that AJ was his dorm mate. He felt a constricting feeling in his gut the moment AJ opened his mouth to talk to him.

So the Canadian had shielded himself using jerky behavior. Chris was never really good at relaying emotions, much less to men, so he'd bullied Styles those first two weeks before he realized that it wasn't annoyance he was feeling in his gut whenever he saw that familiar black and blue bag amongst a sea of students. Chris had stopped pushing AJ into lockers or inside dumpsters.

Instead he kept his distance for a while, see if this kid was worth trying to befriend or if he was just another poor nerd the other jocks might choose to use as a punching bag. That was his first mistake. Scouting AJ meant he kept an eye on him constantly, even going to classes he usually didn't bother attending, all because AJ was part of that class. He was just keeping an eye on him, he'd convinced himself.

Then the party happened, and Chris realized he had never felt that concerned for any other human being, nor will he ever. He just had to keep AJ safe that night, then he realized he had to do the same for as long as the younger man was beside him. There were too many things at that party that AJ didn't deserve to experience.

As cheesy as it seemed, the Georgian was too pure for all the things he'd touched at that place. A single drop of beer and other unknown alcohol shouldn't have touched his lips, it seemed wrong just thinking about it. No other person had the right to see AJ dance on top of that table, and Chris had resisted every urge to claw each individual watching eye out.

Most importantly, AJ didn't need to see what transpired between Chris and Summer. In fact, none of this would have happened if Summer had kept her hands to herself but Chris was man enough to take responsibility. If he'd pushed Summer away, the kiss would have never happened and… he could only imagine what might have been if he hadn't gone to the party.

 

The sound of heavy boots crunching dead leaves behind him startled him but otherwise didn't make him get up from his spot. He rested his forehead on his knees and waited until the approaching person was standing right over the huddled blonde.

Chris grumbled under his breath "AJ, I kinda wanna be alone right now."

He was particularly shocked to hear "I figured you'd forget that you've taken me to this place before."

A voice that absolutely did not belong to AJ Styles.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> *Pops in* Hello...? *Gets book thrown to head* Okay, I'm sorry! I know I'm an asshole for not only making this hella short, but also for leaving you hanging. The excuse I have is to long so if you wanna know why, just ask me on my tumblr.
> 
> Idk how you guys find your sanctuaries/safe havens, but this is basically how I find mine. I like when the place is somewhere I don't have any significant moments for me. It helps me think. Pardon the fact that I sorta base a couple aspects of Chris from myself. I promise this will be the last time I do so.
> 
> Comments/Kudos make me happy, so leave some if ya want. Questions/Suggestions about this fic, as well as prompts for other ones, can be sent to my tumblr via ask: crimson-of-the-earth.tumblr.com


	15. What Do I Do Now?

"How'd you know I'd be here?" Chris asked without turning to look at his unwelcomed guest. He expected Cena, Reigns or even Kevin Owens to come after him. But instead, the one person he never wanted to find him was the one who'd come.

And besides, Summer Rae was the last person Chris would expect to hike through wilderness.

The cheerleader sat down beside Chris on the grass without hesitation, unlike the first and last time Chris had taken her here. She wasn't complaining about dirt on her designer jeans or bugs in her hair, which Chris was a little thankful for. There were no shrill shrieks that would otherwise drive him to find another place to think.

"A lucky guess" was Summer's confident answer as she hugged her knees close to her chest. "I honestly didn't think you still come to this place."

Chris scoffed at that. "I don't tell you a lot of things for a reason." That biting remark seemed to have silenced the girl, which gave Chris enough time to think some more. He'd never realized just how tarnished this place was, that he'd taken three different people here, all of whom he's had a relationship with. 

And all three times ended in disaster. Except all of those relationship were fake: Two of which were non-existent to begin with, whilst the other...

The other was nothing more than a 'what-if'.

 

Summer pursed her lipstick-coated lips in reaction to Chris' hurtful reply, though it was to be expected. Their relationship wasn't one to be envied, after all.

Still, she pressed forward, determined to figure out what was troubling the jock and if there was some way she could help. "Why'd you run off? The others have been looking everywhere for you."

"They'll survive without me for a while," Chris answered as he leaned back against the trunk of the tree behind him, resting his elbows on his knees and letting his hands dangle just above his feet. His Adam's apple bobbed as he swallowed the nervous lump in his throat. 

"I–I...just...just needed time to think. I needed to–…" He took a deep breath to steady his voice, careful not to let exhaustion creep into his tone. He didn't want Summer to have a reason to think he trusted her when he obviously didn't. 

"Things have just been difficult these past few months. Everything's going by so fast, and everybody's expecting me to catch up and know what to do. I'm just... I'm tired, Summer. I really am."

It was good, though, to get it all off his chest. Even if it was all disclosed to the last person he'd trust. At least after knowing all of this, Summer may just be able to help.

There was also the possibility, however, that Summer may just cause even more problems by telling it to the other members of their clique. 

Or worse; blab it out to the whole school.

 

The American's reply, though, eased Chris of his worries. "So instead of facing the problem or letting us help, you decide to run away?"

Chris just shrugged his shoulders. "If it'd give me a bit more time to think of what the hell I'm supposed to do, then yeah. 'Sides, none of you would know how to help me, anyway."

"How would we know if you never tell us?"

She had a point there. Over the last two months, Chris had realized that yes; it wasn't a good idea to keep all this from his friends and expect them to help him out. Still, he took a while to respond, thinking of how to explain the situation without revealing too much.

"I've just been distracted," God, it felt awful just saying it. "But I'm gonna sort everything out. I know what I have to do–" _who to let go_  "And I'll get it all straightened out before the big game."

He sounded way too mature, such a disconnect from his usual 'whatever happens, happens' self, but he meant what he said and he needed to stick to it.

Summer, however, just kept her eyes on the jock, bewildered at how serious Chris was. She kept anticipating for Chris to just laugh and inform her of the joke. He never did , and Summer was stumped.

After a long while, she spoke up though still unsure how to react. "If you're distracted," she started off. "Then maybe breaking up with your girl–"

"I don't have a girlfriend!" Chris spat out, pushing himself up to stand. "I never did! And I never wanna be in a relationship again!

 _'A lie'_ , Chris thought to himself. _'Another complete lie'_

"Ever since Ambrose...I can't do it! I don't wanna have to...to look at someone and see how much they care about me when I know what's gonna happen! I don't wanna pretend anymore! I can't do it!"

By the time he'd finished was when Chris had realized he'd started pacing. He stopped the involuntary action yet his fists continued to clench and unclench but he allowed it. Something to keep himself distracted from how his blood was boiling in his veins.

 

The guilt by doing such a thing was another thing he'd kept for so long. And it wasn't just Summer and Dean. So many women and men have been unfortunate enough to catch the jocks' attention enough to be the subject of such a cruel bet. 

It wasn't just Chris being the one to fool their victims. Cena joined in from time to time, Lesnar usually tricked the ladies, even Kevin Owens tried it a few times just to get extra money in his pocket. He never attempted it again, though, after being dared to date and eventually humiliate his best friend, Sami Zayn. 

There was nothing more painful than looking at a person's face so filled with joy and love, only for the happiness to be ripped from them once they realized that it was never real.

Dean Ambrose was probably the most heart-breaking, though. The moment he found out about the bet, which was during a fight a year ago, the way his face shifted from rage to confusion to desperation was agonizing torture. 

Since then, Chris had sworn off dared relationships.

 

Summer had stood up and placed a hand on Chris' shoulder, somehow grounding the jock. It was a small gesture, but one Chris appreciated nonetheless for the support and comfort it offered.

"Tell me everything. I wanna help." By Summer's instruction, Chris could do nothing else but obey.

So he'd summarized what had happened; his and AJ's kiss in the elevator, the Bella party, their trip to the park up until the fight. Summer was silent through it all, which both relieved and terrified Chris. What could Summer be thinking? Was she secretly recording this to give to the other jocks? To exact revenge for what Chris had done to her?

Once he was finished with his story, Summer stayed quiet for a while and Chris just wanted her to say something.

"I'm...sorry for what happened," She eventually said. "If I just left you alone at that party–"

Chris waved off her apology. "What's done is done. Nothing we could do about it now. I just gotta focus now, know my priorities."

"Are you sure you wanna...let him go?"

'No' was Chris' original answer. But after thinking about it, it was the best thing to do. For both of them. Chris needed to impress the scouts and do good at the game and AJ...

Well, AJ didn't need to get involved with someone like Chris. And they were both better off back to where they started. When the status quo was still intact.

Though it pained him to do so, he nodded his head. It all felt final, that there was no going back from this.

"It's...it's for the best, y'know?" _Best for everything to go back to the way it was._  "We'll both be able to focus on what's important."

 

And with that confirmation, Summer promised not to disclose any of part of their discussion, understanding that Chris needed to figure things out on his own. She and Chris gathered their things and went back to where the jock had parked his truck and drove back to campus.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I know, I know. AJ, Roman, nor Dean have been a part of the last two or three chapters but I wanted to show how Chris is handling the situation. And to give him and Summer a bit more character development.
> 
> Comments and Kudos are my motivation so feel free to leave some. Question/Suggestions can be sent via ask on my tumblr, and feel free to follow me there as well.


	16. Might As Well Put a Bullet in his Head

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I wanted to try out a new style of writing so this chapter will be a bit more different than the previous ones in the fact that it's a bit more dramatic.
> 
> Hope that's alright, and I hope you enjoy it!

It was almost torturous to go back to campus after Chris' walkout, the blonde feeling rather than seeing the judgmental stares from the students around him. He wasn't exactly quiet when he stormed out a few hours ago and no doubt the jocks have made such a huge commotion to search for him, enough to make the rest of the school curious.

After he'd parked his truck and escorted Summer back to the main building, he trudged back towards the boys' dormitory to maybe change clothes since he had at least two hours to spare before the next class. 

As he passed by, he could hear the whispered gossip all around him; random guys and girls in their respective cliques sharing their own interpretations of Chris' earlier meltdown amongst their friends. Usually Chris loved attention, being the extrovert that he was, but hushed rumors and curious and accusing stares were some things he could never get used to.

Deciding to do nothing about it, he shoved his hands into the pockets of his jeans and kept his head bowed as he continued to walk. He made sure to avoid the football field, instead choosing to take the long route by walking around the back of the Tech building and pass the gym. It was a tiring trek but at least he avoided the inevitable rush of his friends towards him and even more accusing glares.

 

It took him a little longer to reach his destination, 20 minutes rather than the usual 10 if he'd taken the shortcut. He opened the door and stepped aside when a group of skater guys pushed him out of the way. Once they passed, Chris quietly turned right and climbed up the stairs to the second floor, avoiding a small group of freshmen whilst on his way down the west corridor. 

Every step closer to his dorm room made his heart beat faster in his chest.

_8…9…10…_

Two feet away from 11, he paused as it became even more difficult to breathe. He was pretty sure AJ was in that room, probably sitting on his respective bed clutching his phone in hopes that Chris would return his calls. No doubt a sickly worried expression marred his features, and Chris had to take a second to recompose himself. 

He shook his head to expel the thoughts from his mind, finding them distracting from his original purpose. He'd hoped AJ would be in there, that's why he'd headed straight to their dorm instead of to the next class. He needed to–…

Chris swallowed the lump in his throat, the reminder of his purpose a great weight on his chest. 

He needed to end this before it grew into something uncontrollable, before it could further hurt the both of them. 

 _'Before he sees me for who I really am,'_  Chris continued ruefully as he gripped the doorknob tightly. His blood ran cold through his body as he heard AJ's voice definitely from the other side of the door, talking to someone probably on the phone since Chris couldn't hear anyone else responding to the Georgian.

 

There was no turning back the moment Chris turned the doorknob and went inside, the creak emanating from the door's hinges called the brunette's attention. Sure enough, AJ was on his bed, dressed down in a hoodie and pair of sweatpants, talking to somebody over the phone. 

Soft blue eyes focused on the blonde, Chris proceeding to his side of the room to take off his jacket, as AJ quickly muttered an "I'm gonna have to call you back" before hanging up.

AJ carelessly threw the phone aside, the gadget luckily landing safely on a pillow, as he stood from his bed and quickly crossed to Chris' territory. He threw aside boundaries and hatred and fighting as he wrapped his arms around Chris' waist in an embrace, pressing his cheek against the jock's clothed back.

The sudden physical contact made Chris flinch. It had been so long since the last time AJ had treated him with anything other than hatred. It was wonderful, so relieving in fact that Chris felt tears prick the corners of his eyes.

However, it also made everything so much more difficult. For the past few months, AJ had been giving Chris the cold shoulder but now that the blonde was ready to let go and move on, AJ pulled him back. It was unfair and Chris wanted to pry those arms from his waist and run.

But Chris had gone tired of running, grew sick of pushing people away, and wanted nothing more than to turn around and return the younger man's embrace. To kiss the brunette's forehead, say his apologies and promise to be better.

It wasn't that easy. From here on out, nothing would ever be that easy. No matter how much Chris wanted it to.

 

With a heavy heart, he pried AJ's arms away from his waist but didn't dare turn to face him. He knew how AJ must have looked; confused, heartbroken and on the verge of anger.

Just like Dean had appeared more than a year ago.

Eventually, of course, he turned around and sure enough, AJ managed to shatter Chris' heart once again. The look on his face was beyond heartbroken, it was of absolute misery. Perhaps the realization of what Chris intended to do was starting to creep into his understanding.

Chris couldn't remember his exact words but the shift of AJ's expressions –from shock to denial to begging to defeat– was something Chris knew would haunt him for the rest of his days.

Whatever he'd said must've been so deplorable that it had caused AJ to drop to his knees, a hand covering his mouth to stifle the sobs and incoherent pleads as the other supported his weight on the carpeted floor. Those once bright blue eyes focused on the floor below him, frozen with shock and grief, unable to look at anything else.

Above him, Chris could only watch in horror as AJ crumbled, unknowing of what to do. He'd seen looks of heartbreak, of anger, had dealt with a slap or two across his face. 

But this…

This was punishment to watch. His punishment for making the younger man suffer for the past month, for pushing everyone away, for thinking that he would get away with breaking heart after heart without consequences. 

Each whimper, every sob, every broken "please"; They all cut through Chris like a knife, and he wanted to drop down, to wipe away those tears and make all the hurt go away.

But there was nothing he could do now, nothing he could say to make it better. AJ may never forgive him for this, no matter how many times Chris would explain to him.

 _'All in due time'_  he'd told himself. And as he walked past a sobbing AJ and out the door, he just prayed.

Prayed to whatever god was listening to make both of them, especially AJ, forget.

But Chris knew better. And there was a voice in the back of his mind, telling him of his worst fear, reminding him of the deed he'd just done.

 

_'You would've been better off killing him'_

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I'm so sorry for the late update. If you follow me on tumblr, you'll know why. But for those of you who don't, I explained that I haven't been in the right headspace as of recently and didn't want that to affect my writing.
> 
> This update, however, does not guarantee regular updates since I'm still not feeling like myself. I just really had a great idea for this chapter, and I didn't wanna lose it.
> 
> As per usual, leave a comment and/or kudos if you'd like to. They always cheer me up and inspire me to keep writing.  
> Also, if you'd like, check out my blog crimson-of-the-earth.tumblr.com and maybe say hi if you wanna.


	17. You Never Cared

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Before we start, I want to make it clear that after several months of hiatus on this fic I've lost the original plans for it so I'm back to just winging it XD
> 
> And also, I decided to not write the 'big game' scene in its entirety and decided to just make it a vague one since I know nothing about American football.
> 
> Alright, on to the chapter and I'll see you in the end notes!

There's no way he could do this. Not after what he'd done. But there's no turning back, he has to push through. Otherwise, it would have all been for nothing.

The time between his last encounter with AJ and the morning of Friday's big game blurred and distorted in Chris' mind. It's almost as if his body was on autopilot, the blonde is unable to remember much of what happened between Tuesday's events and today. This is it, the big game. The beast he'd given up so many things to conquer. 

And Chris just prays to whatever god was listening that it's all worth it.

 

Cena's pep talk doesn't do much to hype him up, the speech going in one ear and out the other for the Canadian. Chris just sits quietly on one of the benches, already geared up as he holds his helmet in one hand. He stares at the polished headpiece scornfully, as if it's at fault for everything that had gone wrong, and it makes him feel even worse. 

His frustration is getting to him, making him pin all his aggression on an inanimate object. The stupidity of the act causes him to shake his head, perhaps to jog some focus back into his mind. He has to focus. _He has to._

The cheer from his teammates signals the end of the pep talk, and he takes his cue to stand up and put his helmet on. He pushes down the metal face mask, the tinted visor coloring his vision, and takes several deep breaths to calm himself. Walking out to the field nearly blinds him as the sudden brightness of noon forces his eyes to adjust far too quickly, and he's blind for five seconds before his vision clears.

The bleachers all around him are filled with people –students, teachers, familiar and unfamiliar– dressed in shirts colored to correspond their supported team. Some of them sported banners of their teams, waved little flaglets and even havw those foam finger things with '#1' sprawled length-wise on the finger. 

All of them, however, are extremely loud, and deafeningly so. Chris' teammates don't seem to notice the crowd's roar as they file out behind him, giving him pats on the back to hype him up. A hand on his shoulder brings Chris out of his trance.

Chris looks over, seeing Cena giving a worried look. "You alright, Chris?" He asks, his voice sounded just as worried. "You don't look too good."

The Canadian thinks about his answer. He doesn't exactly feel great but what did it matter? The big game's about to start, probably the most important game of all their starting careers. It's now or never, and there's no way to turn back.

"I'm fine," Chris waves him off, his breathing sounded ragged to his own ears. "I'm good. Let's go."

* * *

 

AJ doesn't want to see the game. If it isn't for Ambrose's pestering and his promise to Roman that they'd come to watch, he'd still be asleep in his dorm, maybe play some video games by the window nook.

The past few days have been grueling. AJ finds it miraculous that he'd managed to do all his assignments and pass them on time, what with how mundane and tired he felt. He hasn't been getting much sleep, either; Staying up until the ungodly hours of the morning just tossing and turning in his bed. In the chances when he does manage to get rest, he doesn't dream, or at least doesn't dream something memorable.

Avoiding Chris is always a challenge, their living quarters makes it impossible for them not to see each other, not to mention the fact that they share almost the exact same classes. Communication's been reduced to clipped exchanges of useful information for classes and nothing more.

 

"AJ, c'mon," Dean elbows him out of his grumpy stupor. "Lighten up. This is a no-class day, enjoy it while it lasts. We don't get these so often."

AJ replies with a nod, feeling more bored than anything else. Football games aren't really his scene, especially now that Chris is part of the game. It's only because of Dean and Roman's persistence that AJ pulls himself out of the bubble of relative normalcy he'd set. 

It takes about half an hour for the team to file out onto the field, boisterous and hyper due to either the crowd's energy or the sponsored energy drinks they guzzled in the locker room. Despite himself, AJ stands up from his seat to get a hopefully differentiate Chris from the rest of his teammates.

There he is; Jericho, number 10. AJ can't really see anything from his seat at the top of the bleachers but it seems that Chris is talking to one of his teammates. Number 8, someone whose name starts with a 'C', the brunette can't really read the lettering above the number.

The game's about to start and AJ settles back in his seat, heart hammering against his chest despite not being the one playing. 

"Dude," Dean's sharp elbow connects with AJ's ribs, knocking the Georgian out of his anxious wait. "They're gonna be fine. Don't worry about it." The words themselves sound innocent enough, one would just think that it's just Dean referring to all of the players. But AJ knows better. He knows it was Dean's way of saying 'He's gonna be okay. Stop worrying.'

AJ wants to tell him that he isn't worried but no doubt Dean would just shoot him a look of complete doubt in the form of a raised eyebrow. He turns his attention back onto the field and unconsciously crosses his fingers, for whatever reason he didn't know. He just settles with the reason that he wants his school to win, he just wants the WWE Red Demons to take home the glory.

The game starts after ten more minutes. Everything goes swimmingly during the first quarter, the players scramble around the field and every now and then the spectators go crazy over something that AJ couldn't really see well. It's two minutes to half-time when it all goes wrong.

 

Chris couldn't say when the hyperventilating started, he had chalked it up as just being tired from running across the field. He couldn't remember much; Just the feeling of being light-headed and his vision started to blur. Just two minutes before half-time, and the team was doing well. He didn't notice his teammates' worried looks pointed his way, nor did he hear his coach's demand to "Get out of there, Jericho!"  
  
Everything just went black.

* * *

He wakes up in the clinic, harsh lights piercing his vision and he lifts an arm up to block the light from his eyes. He attempts to sit up but a hand on his chest stops him. He looks at the person stopping him, immediately dropping his gaze when AJ's bright blue eyes look down at him with a neutral expression.  
  
"Don't even bother getting up, Jericho," He hisses. "The nurses say to just take it easy."  
  
Chris feels a throbbing pain in his head, and he rubs his forehead to somehow soothe it. "What happened?"  
  
AJ sits back down on a chair beside the bed as he replies "You fainted. The nurse thinks it was because of the heat. The team won, though, so no need to worry."  


The game's over. WWE Academy won. Chris tries to wrap his head around that. After months of cutting ties with people, it seems so anti-climactic. And now he has to face the consequences of his choices. He knows AJ would never forgive him, he doesn't expect the brunette to. After everything he's said, it'd be a miracle if AJ did forgive Chris. Silence stretches out between the both of them and Chris hates it. He wishes that AJ would just say  _something_. He expects AJ to snap at him, scream, cry, and beat him up for what happened between them.

 

"If you didn't want  _us,_ " AJ finally speaks up. "You could've just said so in the beginning. I can take a hint. I am so sick and tired of playing...this little game of yours, Chris, where I'm the one looking like a goddamn idiot trying to figure out what I did wrong."  
  
"AJ, that's not-"  
  
"Don't you  _dare_ excuse your way out of this!" The younger man snaps. There it is; The anger that Chris was expecting. "I'm so fucking tired of your excuses, Jericho! You can't be with me because you didn't want to get distracted?! Bullshit! Just tell me, straight to my face, that you hate me!"  
  
Chris remains silent for a while, not knowing what to say that wouldn't fuel AJ's anger.

AJ, however, can feel his patience growing thin with each second. He grabs the varsity player by the collar, not caring if he could potentially hurt Chris, and pure rage is etched all over his face. 

 

"Say something, you worthless piece of shit! Tell me! Tell me that you never gave a shit about me! Tell me that you never cared about me! Tell me what I am to you!"

 

Chris looks straight into AJ's blue eyes, which are on the verge of tears. "You're..."

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> What better way to come back from a hiatus than a cliffhanger? Anyway, sorry for making everybody wait. I know that a lot of you were loving this work until I decided to stop. But enough about that! hope you enjoyed!


	18. What About Me?!

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Chris has to deal with the consequences of his actions, one way or another.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I have no consistent update schedule for this but I'll try to add a new chapter as often as I can.

Chris doesn't know what to do, what to say. He wants to say everything that's been on his mind for months about how he feels about AJ, but he doesn't want to scare the younger man away. AJ already knows that Chris essentially threw him aside for the sake of a game, but Chris doesn't know how to explain to him that doing so caused him pain as well. That casting everything and everyone he cared about aside just to get himself to focus.

He remembers his conversation with Summer at the abandoned park.

 

_'Are you sure you wanna...let him go?'_

 

_'No,'_ Chris thinks to himself.  _'No, I'm not.'_

 

Though he still doesn't know how to answer AJ's question. Well, he knows what AJ means to him but AJ doesn't. He just watches as AJ eventually loosens his grip on his shirt, the brunette laying his head on Chris's shoulder, and whispers "I never meant anything to you. I was just an object to you, just some toy that you could play with, then throw aside once you're bored."

It breaks Chris's heart to hear everything that AJ must've bottled up inside for so long. But AJ keeps talking, his voice wracked with sobs and hiccups.

"If you never felt anything for me, you could have just said so in the beginning. Instead of leading me on, and I was dumb enough to believe you. So why do I still feel like this? Why do I still want us more than anything in the world? Why is it that whenever I look at you, I feel like everything's going to be okay? Why was I so scared when you collapsed today? Why do you torture me like this?  _Why do you do this to me?!"_

 

The blonde doesn't know what to say. There's nothing to say after everything AJ just confessed. He says the only thing that would make everything remotely better:

"I'm sorry."

 

AJ pulls away from him, looking angry and confused.

 

"I know that I treated you like nothing, and I know that none of my excuses will make up for what I did to you. I know that the pain I feel is nothing compared to yours, and I don't know how to make it better. I don't know how to make this work. I don't know anything!" Chris lays himself back down on the bed, his hands covering his eyes to hide his tears. "I never wanted to see you suffering like this. I never wanted to hurt you the way I did. All I wanted was the best for you, but at the end of the day I was nothing but pain and harm to you."

 

Chris swallows the nervous lump in his throat.

 

"I can't make this work even if I wanted to. The truth is, I pushed you away to prove that I can be the guy everyone expects me to be. I've been pretending to be somebody else for other people that I'm not even sure who I am anymore. I know that that doesn't make things better but at least you get to hear why I did it. It was never for the scholarship. It was part of it, yes, but I guess it's because I'm scared that if the others found out about us, they'd go after you. I'm not worried about what they'd do to me if they found out that we've been... _us_...but I'm more concerned about what they'd do to you."

 

A knock on the door disturbs their conversation, and Roman and Dean come into the room, flowers and a box of pizza in hand. Dean, however, doesn't look too happy to be visiting the older student.

"Hey, man," Roman greets, placing the flowers down on the bedside table. "How're you holding up?"

"Jeez, Roman, with all these flowers, you'd think that I'm in an actual hospital or something."

 

Dean takes a seat at the far end of the room, mumbling "Wish you were."

Roman snaps to look at him, a scolding look etched on his face. "Dean, we've talked about this."

"No, Roman. I get it: You and AJ have to patch things up! But what about me?! What about apologizing for what you did to  _me_ _?!_ "

 

Roman goes over to Dean to try and calm him down, but the Cincinnati native doesn't. Not by a longshot.

 

"No! Lemme say all this shit! Lemme remind him of everything he's done to me! AJ, I know you're hurt right now but if you keep talking to this asshole, he's gonna make everything much more miserable for you!"

"Dean, stop it!" Roman grabs the blonde by the shoulders, anger starting to seep into his tone. "That's enough!"

Ambrose shrugs out of Roman's grasp, continuing his rage-filled rant. "Fuck off, Reigns! You wouldn't be saying that if you knew  _exactly_ what this fucking douchebag did to me!"

 

Roman knits his eyebrows together in confusion before turning to look at his teammate. "What is he talking about?" Chris remains silent. He doesn't want to deal with this right now, but he knows that it's bound to come back to haunt him sooner or later.

 

"You never told Roman, did you? Or does he already know that you're a useless piece of shit?! Go ahead, Roman, ask him!"


End file.
